Hobbies

Hobbies - How They Affect Your Life

Hobbies, you might not have one, but I bet you have looked into a few. Whether it is sports, art, DIY, Technology, or gaming hobbies are the thing you are passionate about and do in your free time. If you are lucky, or if you have the right hobby, it could be your profession. One of my hobbies is Soccer, I have loved Soccer since the first time I played it in first grade. I have gone through many stages of learning in Soccer from at school recesses to rec and now club Soccer. All of these stages are beneficial in multiple ways, not just making me better at soccer or a better teammate. Lessons you can learn from things you are passionate about are the best lessons. This is because you learn the most when you are having fun with what you are doing. Many studies by top neurology websites such as Psychology Today have done research on the help of fun while learning. It bypasses a certain part of the brain called the amygdala which decides if the thing they are doing is effective. In a stress-free and fun environment students are able to learn a lot better. This same logic can also be applied to doing what you love. If you are doing your favorite thing in the world you are unlikely to be stressed and likely to have fun, therefore you learn better while doing your hobby. If people spent as much time on their hobbies as other more important things in their life they would likely get very good at it and learn a ton from what they are doing, for instance, if I loved DIY tech I would, in the process, learn a ton about all the tech that I am working with while still having a ton of fun. This has happened to me in my real life, I was looking into building a PC, and while I was doing research on parts I learned a ton about how PCs actually work and about electronics in general. The best part about that was that I still had a ton of fun doing it. Hobbies can also be beneficial to your life in other ways than just learning about your craft. They are a good way of dealing with stress, as mentioned earlier if you are doing something you love you are unlikely to be stressed out about it. Hobbies can also help your patience because you are usually spending a lot of time focusing on one project that you want to get done. Some hobbies such as team sports can help with teamwork (obviously) and communication, both of which are very useful skills that you can use in the rest of your life. In general, hobbies are a great thing that everyone should have, there are no drawbacks (besides cost) and they can equip you with very important skills for the rest of your life. 

Being An Older Sibling

"Sure, you can talk badly about your younger sibling for hours on end to anyone who will listen, but if they dare to pipe in with their own statement, you'll probably bite their head off." - Insider

I’m older than my sister by 1 year, 336 days and about 3 inches taller, but I’ve been told that we look like twins. Whenever my friends see her, I notice that they always look at her and then at me and you can almost see their minds calculating how close in age we are. I know that my sister certainly looks older than 5th grade but I really don’t think we look like twins. Maybe people just tend to overestimate in age. But it also leads me to the question of do I look younger than a 7th grader? I really don’t think so. I’ve even heard someone say that she looks like a ninth grader, which somehow makes me feel like a lesser human being than her. What makes her look older than me? I’m taller, wiser (in my opinion), and stronger than her but yet the age mistake still manages to occur. But when I see her next to her 5th grade classmates, I start to see the difference and understand why this mistake might be made. People thinking that my younger sister is older than me doesn’t really bother me that much. The only thing is that it deprives me of the “older sibling” title, the privilege and the power of being the elder child.

I think that the "twin" mistake is almost acceptable because 1 year and 336 days isn't that big of an age difference, really. The difference is small enough to make it so it was easy to play with her when we were little, also it means she's old enough to watch The Office with me (actually neither of us are technically "old enough"). It's nice to be this close in age so that we usually side together when we need to overrule our parents. Together, we can almost always convince our parents to get us dessert, or let us stay up later than usual on a school night.

Of course, being an older sibling, I think that the older siblings should be given certain privileges and rights above the younger sibling. That means that I can pull the "I'm older than you" card whenever I want. But I can’t really say which position is better, because I have not experienced being a younger sibling in any way. I think that being and older sibling is pretty nice but it doesn't mean that you kind of have to make the path for your younger sister to follow. I know that my younger sister might not appreciate having a older sibling at all times, but hopefully she appreciates me at least sometimes, because older siblings (sisters at least) are pretty great for many reasons.

Number one; I give my sister all my hand me downs, which she complains about, but then continues to wear all of them. I must say that the fact that she wears a lot of my old clothes probably doesn't help people who think we are twins. Number 2; We share similar tastes in TV, music and pretty much everything so we can geek out together about what we love most. Although, I have to say it is a little bit annoying when she likes everything I like, it's like she's copying me or stealing my identity. So that's a downside to having very similar tastes. But she CAN thank me for showing her everything she loves. Number 3; I gave her advice about dealing with annoying people. Even though she maybe didn't listen to me, I feel like maybe I was helping (and hopefully I was).

Even though she annoys me a lot (especially when she she calls shotgun before me), I still appreciate her, and I sure hope she appreciates me. Older sisters should be valued because even if younger siblings don’t think of us as the best person ever 100% of the time, they do benefit from us. I also benefit from my younger sister in ways I might not see now, but eventually we’ll both see that 1 year and 336 days is not that much of a difference and that we are important to each other.

Sources:

KeepInspiringMe

Insider

Diaries of a Ginger

Ginger, Matchstick, Carrot-top. Nicknames for Red hair. I’ve been called all three of those. I’m a redhead. It’s as simple as that. Pale skin, freckles, blueish green eyes and the famous fiery carrot top.

There are some pros and cons to being a redhead, and that is what I’m gonna be talking about today. I’ll start off with the pros because I want to sound positive today.

Some of my personal favorite pros are; Being able to generate more vitamin D. Studies have shown that Redheads generate more vitamin D than other hair colors. This to me means that I can basically lie in my dark bedroom my whole life while watching Netflix and never have to go outside or take vitamin D supplements. That sounds like a perfect plan to me. That is until I run out of Netflix shows… Anyways, another pro of being a matchstick is as I age and get old, us gingas won’t go grey. Red hair tends to go blonde or a creme blonde as it ages, meaning there is a very low rate of greying. And here is my favorite one, Freckles! I love freckles. They are probably one of my favorite qualities. The thing is, redheads either want to totally get rid of their freckles or they want more! I want more freckles. I recently found out about the new “freckle tattoos” Where tattoo artists are now giving tiny freckle looking tattoos to people who want them. I think when I’m 18, or when my parents let me, I’d go get these. My freckles, really only “pop” Or come out when I’m exposed to more sunlight. Every year, my family goes to Hawaii for winter break. If I compare a picture of me there, vs a picture of me here in Portland, you’d see a difference for sure.

I’m sorry everyone, but it’s time for the cons. Here we go. One of my least favorite ones is the sun. To most redheads, the sun is your enemy. Though yes, I did say I love when my freckles come out in Hawaii, but the stupid sun also gives us gingers a really nice, so elegant and beautiful, bright. red. sunburn. Okay listen, I know what you’re going to say, “Oh, stop complaining, it's’ just a little sunburn. Slap some aloe vera on it and you’ll be fine by tomorrow.” No. Just no. I’ve tried that, trust me. Thanks a lot, fair skin.

Okay, maybe I over exaggerated a little bit but still, it sucks to get sunburnt every summer. Oh and by summer, I mean in the middle of April. Yes, you heard me. I get sunburns in April. Alright, let’s move on before I continue ranting about this. Next, my “Fiery Temper”. Okay yes, I do kind of like having a temper, but still, that temper just lights the carrot-topped flame on my head like a bomb’s fuse. Alright, I’m moving on. Are you still with me? Good. next, going extinct. Redheads are like the dinosaurs of the humans. Sometime, redheads will go extinct and there will be no more left on the planet. And here is the final con. Yes, I’m finally done. Drumroll, please! Are you doing it? No? Fair enough. Redheads have a higher pain tolerance. It takes more general anesthesia to put a redhead under during surgery than others. I don’t exactly know why, but I’m sure Google does.

Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed it. Though it may sound like I don’t like my hair, I really do and I think I am so lucky to be able to have my rare color!