My brother and I always got along really well. We played games together non-stop.
We invented our own board games, operated restaurants with extensive menus, managed grocery stores, designed apartment complex layouts, rehearsed roles as teacher and student, performed radio broadcasts of live basketball games and races, karaoked and recorded songs we wrote together, produced our own newspaper, as well as some other more typical childhood activities.
As I grew up, I found it difficult to escape into the fictional life of playing games. There are so many real and serious things to focus your time on. School, work, housework, wedding planning, etc.
Speaking of weddings - this brings me to my fiance. He enjoys having a hobby to relax him in the evenings. For the past three years of our relationship, he has played computer games and been involved in the on-line gaming community. To be completely honest, I've resented his involvement in these activities because it took up so much of his time and energy. But I wanted him to be happy, so I didn't truly wanted him to quit - I just wanted him to balance his time. Plus, I never realistically thought he would quit - since he'd tried to quit numerous times before.
Then suddenly, he quit again. This time for real. At least, that was his intention, right? Alas, he's a guy who needs to focus his attention on something. It's how he deals with life's emotions - happiness, sadness, stress, or anger.
But you know what's awesome? Instead of launching a new computer game, he researched an old hobby he thought I could participate in also. Then he asked me to play with him!
Granted, it involves fantasy-land, which I obviously am not a huge fan of. It can also be relatively expensive if you allow it to be. And finally, it is a game - which cannot be classified in my mind as "productive".
That's okay though. Not everything I do has to be 100% productive. I only need to accomplish a certain number of tasks in a day, and then after that - I'm free to chill. And what better use of my time than to show my fiance that I love him enough to go out of my comfort-zone and paint some action figure models with him?
The reason my brother and I had such a great friendship growing up is because we were willing to do something even though it wasn't our #1 favorite activity - because it was fun to do together.
So here's to our new hobby: Warhammer. But secretly - I'm just spending quality time with my guy ;)
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What are your hobbies? Does your significant other participate with you?
