My Hobby

Music

Growing up, music is all I had, in a way. We didn't have television at home. We had music and we had the piano. I don't think there was ever a point growing up where I said to myself "I love music," but when I was 4 or 5 years old, I thought, "Hey if I just bang on those keys it makes an interesting noise." It was a game and music is a game of sound. To me, it's still a game of sound. If you play the wrong note but you listen in the right way, you go, "Hang on that's really interesting. I never thought that could work." You forever get to discover things. You forever get to feel something. You get to communicate on a profound level with the musician in your orchestra, you get to communicate and make the audience feel something. That's to me a life well lived.

Fishing

I've been fishing since I was 12 years old. I fish at least 2-3 times a week. But, I'm an outdoor person. I love being outdoors. Some people enjoy being inside the house all the time. That's their thing. Being outdoors is my thing. I think that's part of it right there. Acceptance. Passive fishing is yucky. I agree. I don't like it either. But, not all fishing is passive fishing. I see those guys on the side of the road with a line just sitting in the water while they wait for a fish to come by. I'm not like that. I go find my fish. I will walk (exercise) or I will drive (explore) or I will get in a boat (adventure) and go have a good time. Because I recharge my batteries by being alone, I enjoy my time out there on the water. Fishing gives me the excuse, and it also gives me the motivation to try my hand at solving one singular problem with a million different strategies. I'm trying to catch a fish, but there's a million different ways I can do it. There's live bait, which is cheating...... And, then there's artificial bait, which is where I must challenge my own techniques and brain to try and catch a fish. In a lot of ways, it's a lot like Golf. My only competition is myself. And, with practice, I can only get better and better.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding to me was a way to free my mind and coast on the pavement, to set goals and challenge myself by trying new tricks, to get inspired by my skater friends when somebody landed something. Skateboarding taught me perseverance and self discipline because there was nobody to blame but myself if I didn't land my trick, and I had to figure out the nuance that was missing.This discipline carried over to many other things in my life. Skateboarding got me to travel to places I've never been before simply because I heard about a cool spot there or saw it in a video. I made great friendships by skateboarding and traveling to spots. Skating also gave me physical fitness, we would skate from 5 in the evening until 9 at night. To be fair I acknowledge it's destructive nature and somewhat idiot teenager image, but under the surface it's a very special thing. I don't skate actively anymore, and I will probably not want to throw myself down a set of stairs repeatedly ever again, but I will always remember it dearly as one of the most defining things in my life so far.