A pandemic hobby is the stress reliever you need. Here’s how to find yours

The barrage of canceled plans started out as a fun novelty for an introverted type like myself. But this quickly morphed into a general “blah” feeling, amplified by my anxiety about the state of the world and concern about my loved ones’ health.

Then I hit the point where I started to feel guilty that I wasn’t doing more with my extra hours.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with re-watching The Office for the nine millionth time (it’s comfort food in TV form), I’d always promised myself that I’d get around to re-learning music at some point. I sang and played viola all through high school, and took piano lessons when I was young. In recent years, I realized I missed music, but could never find the time to dive back in.

I figured if I wasn’t going to revisit my musical background during this time period, when would I?

To get started, I bought a $20 keyboard off of Facebook Marketplace. I had my mom send me my childhood piano books, which she was more than happy to offload. Then, I was off to the races.

While the first few days were dicey (shoutout to my husband for hearing “Jingle Bells” and “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” endlessly and claiming to enjoy it), I can honestly say that I’m proud of my progress. After a twenty-year break, I’m now able to play well enough that I wouldn’t embarrass myself if someone asked me to show off my skills.

But more importantly, it’s nice to have a hobby that doesn’t involve doomscrolling on Twitter.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who’s picked up a pandemic hobby.

Ethan Radtke also rediscovered music this year and has been taking guitar lessons with Bold Music. He and his wife relocated from Charlotte to London for his job, but he still takes weekly half-hour lessons via Zoom. Since everyone and everything is virtual these days, being thousands of miles away from your teacher doesn’t matter much.

“I tried to teach myself how to play guitar as a teenager, but was pretty undisciplined so I never practiced,” Radtke says. “I always wanted to pick it back up. In addition to the stress of the pandemic and having no commute time after moving to remote working, I was looking for a hobby that would keep me away from a screen and give me a chance to destress. Learning to play guitar fits both.”

Brooke Buckner rediscovered her passion for cookie decorating during her pandemic downtime.

She’d attended a class at Sweet Spot studio and loved it, but didn’t have much time to pursue the hobby beyond that. Now she’s a new mom and says she loves “that it was something I could do at home while my son was napping, and it was also something I could share with other people.”

Her friends and family are enjoying the fruits of her labor, too, as she’s been sending the finished product to them in care packages.

Kelly Woodfin learned how to refinish furniture during her pandemic downtime. She says she finds the pieces at Goodwill and estate sales. One of her favorite projects to date was taking a $15 buffet table and transforming it. Here’s a before and after of her work:

While many of us have become more sedentary this year, Celena W. has upped her activity level by learning to skateboard. Celena, who requested we not include her last name, says she always wanted to learn how, but hadn’t seen other Black women doing it and feared she’d “look like a poser.” The pandemic prompted her to ditch her hang-ups and get going.

“It became a suppressed desire, until now, and I said ‘f*** fear’ and just bought a skateboard and have been practicing on my own time. I just love how daring, carefree, and confident it makes me feel,” she says.

If you want to join the ranks of the pandemic hobbyists, here are some tips:

• Tap into your childhood passions. Re-visiting your childhood passions is a good way to find a hobby you’ll actually enjoy. Plus, the dose of nostalgia can be soothing.
• Be patient with yourself. When I first got my keyboard, I found myself treating it like a part-time job. I’d feel guilty if I didn’t practice on a particular day, or hadn’t made as much progress as I’d hoped. Then I remembered that this was supposed to be a fun stress reliever in the middle of a chaotic year. Who cares if I didn’t practice or was only good at playing three songs? I was enjoying it. That’s all that matters.
• Don’t invest a lot of money. If you’re not sure if you’re in it for the long haul, spend the bare minimum amount of money to get started and then see how it goes. My $20 keyboard can collect dust and I won’t feel guilty.
• Make use of virtual resources. Companies like SkillPop host virtual classes on a variety of topics, from web design to homebrewing. You can take music lessons virtually with companies like Bold Music, as Ethan did. There are also tons of free resources online if you want to learn to speak another language, for example, or get better at drawing.

Looking for more things to do from home? Here are 21 quarantine-approved ideas.