Our Hobbies Define Us (FW)

        Today I found out that I got into this thing called the MSVMA All-State Honors choir for the second time. It's the third stage of a yearly high school choir competition that takes a really long time to explain, so I'll skip the explanation and just say that the All-State level is a choir of around 120 of the most talented singers in the state. This is something that I honestly freak out about. I love having the challenge to memorize five new songs in like a month, including those tiny (yet not so tiny) details like exact timing, pronunciation (for the foreign pieces), and interpretation. The notes are the easy part. It's challenging, yes, but I love every minute of it. The point is, I am super thrilled about this (more than you can even imagine) while whoever is reading this is probably thinking something along the lines of  "Who in the world takes on extra work like that and finds things like memorizing music fun and entertaining?". And we come to the point of my blog post: Our hobbies define us.
        This is something I've always found intriguing. How is it that one person can excel at one thing and then totally fail at another. I guess it's because we hone our skills in one main area or a few, and then the rest of our abilities in life kind of waver. Some people enjoy sports and invest all of their time into them, others cannot even understand how they work. Some people are brilliant at playing piano, others have issues distinguishing the names of the keys. It all depends what your talents are and how much you enjoy doing those things. I find that a lot of times, what you are talented at becomes what you love to do.
        Of course, capability is another thing. I love to perform in musicals. I've got the acting and singing down, but the dancing part - that's another story (Ha! I am truly terrible at dancing). It's not that I don't want to dance - in fact I wish I could dance with the gracefulness of an actual dancer. No, the fact is that I might just not be capable of dancing in the first place. Sure, I can block out a few simple moves like the grapevine or the box step, but I don't think I will ever be able to dance easily like a dancer could. It's just not one of my strong points. Still, that doesn't stop me from trying. We all try at certain points in our lives to do things that we may not be at all good at. Sometimes we do so as a simple joke, other times because we actually want to get better at that specific task. And, as long as we have the potential for growth and are willing to work hard enough, we can, indeed, improve our abilities for that particular skill. If we don't have the capability to grow in that skill, however, improving can be nearly impossible.
        So, in the long run, we tend to stick with what we are good at, or with what we love to do. I love the fact that everyone is unique. We all come from different backgrounds and love to do different things. Sometimes that individuality brings us together, showing that people who like to do completely different things can still find joy in hanging out with each other. This works the other way too, of course. People with the same hobbies can be brought together in a special way as well - a bonding between individuals who all share the same or a similar hobby.
        Either way, having a hobby is good for us. It defines us for who we are. If I didn't sing all the time, I would be a very different person. In fact, it scares me as to how different my entire life would be. Seriously, imagine your own life without one of your greatest talents. How strange would your life have been? One simple difference can change the entire make-up of your very being. Quite terrifying, right? Well, I'm glad that we are who we are. Everyone has their own strengths, their own weaknesses, and their own lifestyles. It's part of what makes us human. A hobby is something we find joy in - something we can honestly say has changed our life for the better - something that gives us true meaning.