Hobby Lobby—Count Your Days!!!
Alternative titles were notably "Hobbies R Us" and "We Are What We Hobby"
The third year of Emily For President is upon us and I’ve been thinking a lot about what that means and entails. I spent a year chasing the news and finding my footing, a year talking to as many interesting people as I could, and now, I kind of want to push the boundaries of what we’re doing here and see all that could be possible.
But that’s what is to come. What’s right now is, in my opinion, my bread and butter—reminiscing about a conversation we literally just had here and begging people to talk to me about it in a panel.
In my defense, there is a clear throughline: in my preoccupation with the past, present, and future of E4P, I keep returning to a chat I had with one of today’s panel participants, Courtney Wong, back in 2022. In particular, I keep thinking about how, in the midst of talking about imposter syndrome and side hustles, I had a minor glitch and said I often felt that “because this is kind of just a glorified hobby, I shouldn’t ask other people to value it as much as I do.”
First and foremost: I should have never come for hobbies like that. I love my hobbies!! I love everyone’s hobbies!!!1 Although I eventually got to the right approach and headspace by the end of that piece, I still wanted a slight redo because regardless of if this is all a glorified hobby or if none of you value any of it, there is merit in celebrating what comes to life when we do things just to do them—period, end of sentence.
Alas, as so often happens when thoughts grow too big inside my head, I needed to projectile vomit them all onto other people—you reading this all right now and everyone who was gracious enough to participate in the panel. Without further ado, today I asked guests about their hobbies, why they love them, and the different shapes their pursuits take in their lives.
How do you define what is a "hobby"?
Sophie, 25, she/her: Something you like to do, and cultivate, in your free time.
Lincoln, 25, she/her: Something you do for fun that’s not related to your career.
Lauren, 25, she/her: Something I like to do in my spare time, brings joy.
Courtney, 26, she/her: Any activity you enjoy doing that you don’t regularly earn a salary from.
Blair, 26 (when this goes live!!), she/her: An activity, outside of work or required things, that you do solely for enjoyment.
Sean, 25, he/him: An activity you do for fun in your free time.
Gill, 26, she/her: Something that you do for your own enjoyment.
HL, 27, she/her: What you like to do when you have nothing you NEED to do.
What is your number one go-to hobby?
Sophie: K-pop consumption. Followed by: singing, ukulele, volleyball, learning languages, and reading (doesn’t count, though, because it’s my job). Changes depending on the month and mood and how much time I have.
Lincoln: Cooking.
Lauren: Singing.
Courtney: Reading or painting.
Blair: Reading!
Sean: Working on my YouTube channel.
Gill: Indoor cycling.
HL: Cross-stitching or doing fill-ins.
What originally drew you to this particular activity?
Sophie: I have a weird OCD thing where I spiral when I try and watch TV. I simply don’t anymore. But one night during the pandemic when I was STRUGGLING, I saw the Blackpink documentary on the Netflix homepage…clicked it without thinking…watched it four times that month…that was it for me.
Lincoln: Needing to eat.
Lauren: Started when I was 7! Doing musicals and performing were my happy place for a long time.
Courtney: I have always loved reading and painting/drawing since I was a child. I think reconnecting with the things I loved when I was younger has made me happier now as an adult.
Blair: I always have loved reading, and I like the escape and discovering stories different than my own. Growing up, I read a lot and my parents also made me and my brothers read a lot. In high school and college, I lost touch with it because I was reading textbooks a lot but when I graduated, I started to re-discover my love of books. This led to me starting a book club and using reading to connect to so many people. Since then I’ve been a voracious reader :)
Sean: My love for movies and awards.
Gill: THEE NYC SoulCycle girlies of 2016, ‘17, ‘18, etc. I thought they were the SHIT
HL: Friends introduced me!
Is your favorite hobby something you willingly discuss with others or keep to yourself? Why one or the other?
Sophie: Both! K-pop fans get a bad rap so I try and only talk about it with people who already know me. But, at the same time, when do I ever shut my pie hole about anything?
Lincoln: I love to discuss it. I like showing off what I’ve cooked and learning recipes from other people.
Lauren: I discuss it but I don’t like to sing in front of other people.
Courtney: Totally! I love talking about it because often other people engage with these hobbies too, want to, or know someone else who does.
Blair: Discuss! It’s such a great connector. I love nothing more than talking about books with people.
Sean: Discuss to spark conversation and get more subscribers!!!
Gill: I always talk about it!! It took me a while to find a hobby when I became an adult and I love giving other people ideas.
HL: Absolutely something I discuss, mainly because I have a lot of friends whose fave hobby is reading and I do NOT like reading so I am a believer in hobby representation beyond the more talked about stuff
Does your hobby have any relation—positive, negative, or neutral—with your job?
Sophie: If Scribner raises my blood pressure, I turn on TWICE’s “Fancy” and feel instantly better.
Lincoln: I work in a restaurant at the moment so kind of. But that’s not my main career goal or field. If I was rich one day, I would maybe open a restaurant as a side business though.
Lauren: No, except the performance piece definitely ties into my training or speaking at conferences
Courtney: Painting and art definitely have some overlap with my job, as I work at a creative advertising agency. While I’m not a creative in my official title, I have contributed my art skills to my job. I’ve tried to stop doing that though since that’s not ~in my job description~
Blair: Positive! Random knowledge is super important in my job and I collect tidbits in books.
Sean: Neutral.
HL: Neutral! I feel like I’m constantly figuring out ways to advocate for policies related to my job in my personal life so it’s nice to have one thing—or a couple of things—that are entirely unrelated and neutral.
If you've monetized your hobby, are you happy you did or do you have any regrets?
Courtney: I’m happy I did and happy I do not anymore.
Gill: Overall, I’m happy! I’m paid to do something that I love, and I don’t rely on it as my main source of income so it doesn’t stress me THAT much. It adds a new layer to something that was previously just for me since now it’s for others too.
If you haven't monetized your hobby, would you ever want to? Why or why not?
Sophie: No need, it would just create stress.
Lincoln: Only if I had the means to do it easily. I would never want to be a professional chef because I think it would ruin the fun of it for me.
Lauren: Nah—monetizing singing is way too big of an endeavor and I’m not that good.
Blair: No, I don’t want to shit where I eat.
Sean: Yes! Because I love and need money.
Have you ever second-guessed your participation in a hobby due to your skill level—or your lack of skill? If yes, can you share any thoughts you had?
Sophie: Not skill, but I’ve met some K-pop fans who are genuinely awful people. One time I went to a club night and someone was complaining about how most people only knew the newer songs… he need to feel better than others in that community seems to be a life force for many.
Lauren: 1000%, like auditioning for a capella or musicals past high school is soooo scary. I put myself out there a bit freshman year of college but haven’t since.
Sean: Yes—I get discouraged when I work hard on a video and it doesn’t get a lot of views.
Gill: Yes—the first time I went cycling, I hated every second of it and didn’t go back for years. Went back, and hated it again, but this time it was only a few months until I wanted to try again. The third time was the charm and it stuck!
Has your lack of a skill ever held you back from pursuing a hobby you wanted to try?
Sophie: Nah!
Lauren: Yes, I don’t like being subpar at anything so generally would rather not try.
Blair: Yes. I was really into making art when I was younger. I just never felt like I was good enough at it to pursue more than that.
Sean: Yes.
Gill: Absolutely—it’s hard to enjoy something you struggle with.
HL: Yes!! Especially artistic and creative hobbies. I feel like a lot of modern artistic and creative hobbies are very expensive (buying materials, etc.) so there aren’t a lot of ways to casually try those hobbies without being “invested” to a certain degree, and I don’t necessarily want to be invested if it’s not something I’ll be good at. Maybe it’s the eldest daughter in me.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Sophie: Nah! Stan TWICE.
Lauren: I want more hobbies!!!
Courtney: “Girl hobbies” are annoying and we should stop gendering things that don’t need to be gendered. A hobby can be anything you want! People take the word too seriously and stress themselves out thinking they don’t know how to enjoy themselves. But I also say this as a girl who does, in fact, have a lot of hobbies…
Blair: Love you!
Sean: Check out my YouTube channel, The Awards Gambit!
Gill: Just that I miss ya.
HL: Nope! Go hobbies! Go E4P!
What's your favorite thing that you've ever made, in the history of ever?
Sophie: Made? In a literal sense, I love my stick-n-poke tattoos. I also translated 25% of a French novel in an attempt to get my colleagues to let me buy it. Failed, but got close, so that was cool. Also, if we’re talking hobbies, I “made” a move to Portugal and learned the language on my own—that was cool too!
Lincoln: Anything from the Blue Ribbon cookbook, especially the beef marrow bones with oxtail marmalade and challah toast.
Lauren: Honestly, I love designing stuff on Canva, so my favorite thing top of mind would be a recent presentation on neurodiversity inclusion as it combines my artistic side and my passion for raising awareness and promoting a neuro-affirming society :)
Courtney: My paintings are my pride and joy.
Blair: My brown butter rice krispies.
Sean: My YouTube channel!
Gill: This is an impossible question for me right now…probably a disco ball out of a bottle of tequila!
HL: A fool (of myself).
Emily: I’ll give you one guess…
Thank you to everyone who participated in this panel!!! And thank you to everyone for coming along with me for three years of E4P!!!! What a weird thing to say and a weird place to be, but I couldn’t be more grateful for all of it. 💚💚💚
That’s a lie—I love my hobbies, and I vaguely like most of most other people’s hobbies.
So happy to have participated in this one!!