FOR THIS WEEK I CHOOSE - What is that one hobby you wish you could do for fun, too, and why can't you adopt it for your free time?
I’ve actually considered coding and turning it into a hobby and just build apps for fun, not necessarily as work but as a creative outlet. On paper, it sounds perfect and people always made it sound so cool, like the idea of being able to take something from your head and actually turn it into a real, working app is crazy. Like, you’re not just consuming anymore, you’re creating something people can use, interact with, even benefit from and with every positive or even negative review, you feel seen. I know for a fact that if I could code properly, I’d enjoy it a lot. I’d be building random idea and just being creative with it.
However, the reality of starting was very different, like i actually tried. Sat down, opened a few tutorials, told myself I was finally going to learn this thing properly and yeah… I lasted like a day. Not even because it was impossible to understand, but because it just felt like a lot all at once. New terms, new concepts, everything looking unfamiliar. It’s like entering a completely different world where everyone already seems to know what’s going on and then there’s the time factor, coding isn’t something you just “pick up” in bits and pieces, at least not in the way it’s usually presented. It demands consistency. Hours and a whole lot of consistency, discipline and dedication. You have to sit with it, struggle through it, come back again the next day, but trying to fit that into an already busy schedule? That’s where it fell apart for me. After that first day, I just couldn’t find the time to go back, and once you break that momentum, it’s very easy to just leave it.
I think that the real struggle with something like coding is that It sits in that limbo between interest and effort. You’re genuinely interested, you can see the potential, you know it would be fun for you, but the barrier to entry just feels high enough to keep pushing it to “later” and i think its something i wish id gotten into earlier cos now the responsibilities alone wont even affrod me the time.
So it becomes one of those hobbies that lived in my head more than my actual life. Something i know i’d be good at, or at least enjoy, but just haven’t been able to fully step into yet and if im being honest until i find a way to make that first phase easier or more consistent, it just stays there, as an idea waiting for the right moment.