2023 is the year of hobbies

I’m prone to oversharing sometimes.

A friend of mine just asked how I was doing the other night. Here’s what I remember my answer sounding like.

After almost three years of relentless instability – public health crisis, loss of career, learning new skills, changing employers, big personal life changes, buying a house, more career and employer changes, deep depression, addressing that mental health crisis, and just trying to keep up with all the shoveling –

I’m just settling in. Learning to be happy every day, not just some days. Having lots of free time, and not feeling obligated to fill it with anything. Able to reshape my life towards one where I simply focus on the things I love, and the things that I don’t love don’t take up too much space, time, or energy.

And before I end up in a nosedive of introspection, I’m here to say that I’m excited to have hobbies again in 2023. Here’s what that might look like.

• Hosting movie nights with my friends, Commutator Collective.

• Watching a lot more movies, and logging them all on Letterboxd.

• Producing a podcast or two. Mainly, a conversation show in the style of Song Exploder asking people to share stories about the non-parental adults who raised them.

• Finishing some long-standing musical projects and putting on a wee show to celebrate.

• Traveling to South Africa, Idaho, and who knows where else, and the pictures and video to go with those travels.

• YouTube??? I love watching all kinds of stuff near the photo and filmmaking corners of the platform, but am still circling exactly what MY YouTube channel would be.

And most of all, I’m going to enjoy it all. Learn things. Make stuff. Share stuff. And none of it will be on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!

All my best,

Emmet