Do you ever read something that captures your attention and truly resonates with you? For me, it doesn’t happen often. I find myself easily intrigued by one blogger’s opinion of a certain product from the grocery store or my friends’ opinions of a class I should or shouldn’t take, but rarely ever do I read something that sticks with me for days.
All types of information can occupy my mind at one time, but lately the thought I have been almost constantly centered upon has been “Embrace your weird hobbies!”
One of my favorite influencers is Kristin Johns. She shares real, transparent advice in a bubbly and unique platform. Kristin recently started “Kristin Made,” a place for all of her interests to gather in the form of tips, tricks, and information for others. I am enthused with almost all of her hobbies, and I am giddy with excitement when she has a new post up.
This post from a few weeks back resonated with me. It deeply and truly captured my attention. Her words were exactly what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear them.
You see, typing away on my blog and taking Instagram pictures was a lot easier during the summer when I could put up a new post and not have to interact with people whose opinions I was terrified of hearing. As soon as I came back to school, I started feeling a flush of embarrassment or the idea that all my thoughts and blog posts were silly when I was in the vicinity of a cool girl or even some of my closest friends. I let myself feel down about my blog almost daily, but thankfully, I kept posting.
Kristin’s words were posted on Instagram, my favorite social media platform, on September 15th, just a month since I had been back to school and experienced doubt and frustrations.
if you need daily encouragement like I do.
Her words were simple,”So my encouragement to you today is to EMBRACE your weird hobbies, draw NEARER to things that other people aren’t interested in that you love. Those are the things that make you special & unique & interesting.”
Embrace your weird hobbies. How good is that? God gave me all of my interests- blogging, card making, video editing, reading. All of those hobbies are for a greater purpose than just simple entertainment.
Since reading Kristin’s post that day, every time one of my friends makes me feel slightly weird about my blog or I avoid mentioning it at the chance of seeming unbothered, I repeat the words in my head- embrace your weird hobbies. Every time I upload a post out into the world or post an Instagram story I think- embrace your weird hobbies. It’s what keeps me brave.
My advice to add on top of Kristin’s is simple. Embrace the hobbies of your friends. Cheer her on. Support her. Love her. It could make all the difference in the world. It could be the difference between the light that keeps her hobby going fading or her reaching paramount success. Supporting those we love is crucial.
I have experienced those tiny moments of fear and rejection when I felt the subtle disproving of my blog from people I am the closest to. I am sure I have made the mistake of seeming unenthused by one of my friends expressing her new hobby. I hold myself to the standard of making everyone feel successful every single day. I might not always succeed, but I want to try.
I have had this post in my drafts section since the day I read Kristin’s sweet words. One day I would feel inspired to finish it and another I would feel that getting these words out there was stupid. What am I saying to myself as I schedule this post to go up? Embrace your weird hobbies.
