Weekly Tea Discussion: Choosing Hobbies Over Work

I took a short vacation this past week and a half and although I didn’t leave New York, a nice staycation was just what the doctor ordered. I read, I wrote, I visited places that either were for the first time or a place I haven’t been to in a long time. The past few months I have been extremely stressed and my anxiety being at high measures. This little reprieve allowed me to recharge and get back in the swing of things. 

What do you with ease your passion. It is a realm of flow like a continuous flowing stream.” -Lailah Gifty Akita

But as it was coming to an end, my stress and anxiety started to rise. Now I know what you are thinking. It is normal that people don’t want to go back to work after having a good vacation. You don’t want it to end and you want to stay in that little bubble forever. However, this felt different. I really didn’t want to go back to my job, having to yet again to deal with the unnecessary stress and my anxiety reaching it’s boiling point. I would be right back where I started, having little time for myself. And that leads me to discuss this week’s discussion topic: forcing to choose work over hobbies.

Workplaces pride themselves in providing a work/life balance for their workers. But I find this to be nonexistent. Sure, they give their workers entertainment and travel discounts, but when do we have the time to actually experience them? This short vacation allowed me to appreciate how much I appreciate my extra curricular activities that don’t deal with work.

So right now I take a stand. I refuse to put my interests aside. Workplaces need to understand that in order for us to be good workers, we need have outside interests, a life outside of work. I should not have to continuously battle this issue, but the conflict I face with this is constant battle. As I told my manager, there are two very important things that matter in my life: my family and my health. I refuse to let anything to jeopardize that, including work.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to choose between hobbies and work. I mean, it is common sense that our lives should not revolve, however, society doesn’t allow that to happen. But I need to go against. When I turned 30, I made new birthday resolutions and two of them were to make changes and speak up against any injustice. I love to read, write, and draw. Why should harm come to it because of work? So we need to choose our hobbies over our jobs. Work may make us think we have little time to do anything else, but it is really us holding back. You never know, you may come out as better worker in the end.

Do you feel that you have to choose between work and your hobbies?