Who says growing up means you have to become boring?
Everyone has activities they enjoy in elementary school: playing on swing sets, watching Cartoon Network or maybe reading Superman comics. My two favorite activities back then were playing with Legos and video games.
But as people grow up, there is a sense that you have to stop doing childish activities. I still play with Legos and video games although not for the same reasons I did as a kid. I don’t think people have to let go of all their interests when they get older.
As I’ve matured both mentally and spiritually, I was able to keep my two favorite hobbies and still be an adult.
When I was 7, I loved playing with Legos, but I had trouble building the sets. I could never follow the instructions. The booklet would show a picture of what the set should look like, but I couldn’t determine what new pieces should be added.
I remember one set I loved was the Chrome Crusher from the Rock Raiders theme. It was a large set, and it looked awesome. I couldn’t build it though, and instead I had one of my brothers construct it.
I lost interest in Legos when I got into my teens. But a couple of years ago I really became interested in Legos again—this time with building the sets instead of just playing with them.
I watch other people online who made their own custom creations and study how they made their gigantic dioramas of castles, old west towns and space stations.
Just recently I modified a car from the Jurassic World set to make it look more accurate to the movie.
My childhood hobby has grown into an adult one—model building.
Now, just making my own creations is a calming hobby for me in my spare time.
Since I was little, I enjoyed playing video games with my three older brothers. I played a lot of platformers, a type of game where the main method of gameplay is hopping from platform to platform to avoid various obstacles.
About the same as with Legos, I lost interest in playing video games in my teens. I enjoyed storytelling, which most games at that time lacked, so I read books instead.
One day, however, I discovered a type of video game known as adventure games. These games emphasize storytelling over gameplay.
There are a couple of games I have fun playing that have you talk with people, solve puzzles and interact with the world in a more complex way than Mario ever did.
I had found an avenue of games where I could grow up, but still have fun being transported to virtual worlds like I had as a kid.
Building Legos and playing video games still bring me a lot of joy, and I will most likely keep them as hobbies well into the future, but they don’t bring the same type of joy they brought me as a kid.
I’ve matured, and I was able to retain parts of what I enjoy doing.
No one has to grow completely out of things they enjoyed in their youth. I have friends who still read young adult books like the Hunger Games saga. Sports is an activity that is enjoyed by both kids and adults, but adults enjoy it for different reasons than they did as children.
There are many hobbies that people of all ages enjoy, and everyone enjoys them for different reasons.
If you still enjoy a particular hobby that you had as a kid, I say keep on enjoying it.