Remember those little books we used to have as kids where each one of your friends (and obviously your secret crush) would fill in their details, hobbies and interests and usually a little message to you? I loved them! I used to get a new one almost every year. But I didn't really like filling in my own details to my friends' books for one particular reason - I didn't have many hobbies.
My family is and has always been very supportive for us children to have hobbies, but I wasn't really too interested in anything as a kid. Even though my parents were always encouraging I was secretly very insecure that I couldn't do this and that or become really good at anything. I tried many things like dancing, different instruments, cooking, skating and skiing but would always give up after a while. The only hobby that I truly enjoyed was reading. And I sure read - I read so much that in the end of my school years I had read everything I was even slightly interested in in our small town library. I still like to read, but my old habit of reading before bed has turned into climbing into bed, eyeing for my book on the shelf but almost instantly passing out for being so exhausted of spending the day outdoors.
When I was studying to become a registered nurse I started going to the gym and different group fitness classes. I became so obsessed that I even trained three months with a personal trainer! I had never been physically active but now I was truly enjoying it. Another hobby I picked up later on was painting - I had no idea what I was doing, but I didn't care. I bought myself art supplies and just went for it. I still think I'm really not good at it at all, but why should that matter? It was a brilliant channel for my creative traits that have always been strong.
I made a conscious decision around that same time that I should educate myself and learn more skills, so I picked up ukulele. I taught myself with the help of the all glorious YouTube tutorials and a year later I was playing on a rooftop bar in Spain for fun whilst everyone was singing along. It was such an amazing feeling!
Later in life I noticed that nursing wasn't really good for my mental and physical health and I wasn't truly passionate about it so I decided to go traveling a bit further away to find out what did I really want to do with my life. You can read all about this in my previous blog post https://www.tidesncurrents.com/post/our-dream so I won't go to details here, but during my first year in Australia I realised I was an outdoor person and I fell in love with sailing (and an Australian guy haha, but that's a whole another story!) as well as hiking and camping. Naturally whilst working on sailboats being surrounded by waters all the time I noticed I truly enjoyed being in the water as well as on it. I started practising freediving. I had done some yoga every now and then since studying nursing but when you start practising freediving it naturally leads to practicing yoga and breath work regularly. One of my biggest achievements since becoming a registered nurse has been becoming a yoga teacher.
I had spent some time fishing as a kid but it wasn't until I met Josh that I really got into it. Since we spent so much time around, on and in the waters it was just natural that we picked up spearfishing as well which lets you be more selective with your catch. With boating comes along navigational and weather reading skills as well as learning a bit about everything for maintenance such as engines, electronics, fibreglassing, painting... You name it! Changing reality tv -shows and movies to selecting more documentaries to watch instead led us becoming really inspired about climbing (I blame Free Solo, 14 Peaks and The Dawn Wall!). We met some new friends who were already into climbing and they showed us where to start - and it was so much fun!
Last time I wrote to a book of friends was probably when I was around 14 years old with hobbies like reading, riding my bike to school and watching movies. Nothing I was truly passionate about. Now that I'm starting my 40th decade on this planet I can finally say that I do have hobbies. Lots of them! But since book of friends is no longer a thing at this time and in my age, I'm listing them here instead for my younger self to see that I've come such a long way:
Writing
Reading
Learning
Sailing
Hiking
Camping
Playing guitar and ukulele
Freediving
Spearfishing
Yoga
Climbing
Photography
Videography
Editing
Painting
Jewellery making
Dancing
Hopefully soon acroyoga with my partner and friends!
-Heli
Ps. To that teacher that in the end of my elementary school (when I was 12 years old) told me and my parents that I would never be a very active person but she rather saw me sitting still and reading in peace and quiet and that I should persuade something like that in my life as a career - see me now and hear me roar.