Annemarie
Hey there! I genuinely hope you’ve had a good February. Can we take a second to appreciate how awesome all of the blogs have been this month? Catch up on them here if you need to!
I wasn’t quite sure what to write about this month. There’s been a lot on my mind, and a lot going on in my life. But I don’t think I’ve organized my own thoughts enough to write anything serious. I still technically owe you a proper introduction, but I don’t feel like doing that either. So I’m gonna throw all of that out the window and write about my ukulele. Cause why not?
So, why did I decide to get a ukulele? Well, I’d be outright lying if I said I didn’t want to be Dodie Clark, also known as doddleoddle on YouTube. Or Tyler Joseph of twenty one pilots. Either works.
"how the actual heck does Dodie make this look so easy?"
— Annemarie Cutruzzola (@rietherie) January 29, 2017
But there were other reasons that I wanted to try to learn how to play the uke. Over the past few years, I’ve kinda outgrown all of my hobbies. I stopped doing a lot of things I used to enjoy, and my time was filled up by other things I deemed more important, such as school, writing, and yes, the Internet. When there was an “interests and hobbies” section on a job application or something, I didn’t really know what to say. I wanted a new hobby, something I could teach myself and be able to do on my own accord, just for fun.
I used to play the piano, and I played the alto saxophone for a few years in music class at school. I enjoyed both, but I eventually just stopped playing for whatever reason. I began to miss being able to play an instrument. After watching Dodie’s videos for about a year (and with the influence of a few twenty one pilots songs) I became really interested in the sound of the ukulele.
So about a month ago, I got my hands on a soprano ukulele and started to teach myself how to play. I learned rather quickly that I have incredibly slow fingers and I make some really weird faces while I’m playing. Hot.
I’m still terrible at the uke, but I’ve learned some songs that I’m happy to play slowly, with mediocre accuracy. I have a new appreciation for ‘Heathens’ and ‘Riptide’, and other pop songs with only a few chords. This was actually the first song I learned how to (kind of) play on the uke. Did I mention I love Tyler Joseph?
Anyways, even though I said I wouldn’t get deep in this blog post, I have learned something valuable in the past month. This whole experience of learning to play the ukulele has taught me the difference between a hobby and a passion.
I enjoy playing the ukulele. I’m most likely to pick it up when I’m bored, or if I have 20 minutes before I have to do something else. There’s only been a couple times where I’ve sat with it for hours, hunched over a video tutorial with my foot falling asleep and the afternoon slowly turning into evening. But it’s something I do for fun. I feel a small sense of accomplishment whenever I learn a song, but it’s all very surface level. It is totally fine, and even necessary, to have things in your life like this. Hobbies keep you busy, take your mind off things, and are just enjoyable to do.
But I’ve realized that it’s so different from when I’m writing. I need to write. Not like a “oh crap this assignment is due tomorrow” kind of need. A fulfillment kind of need. When I’m writing, I feel like I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing. I feel like I have a purpose, and that I’m doing something meaningful. Whether the writing sees the light of day or not, everything just feels right, no matter what else is going on in my life.
It’s difficult to explain, but it’s like there’s a gravitational force pulling me towards writing. In January, I was in the midst of exam season and working longer hours at my co-op placement. I hardly had any time or energy to write, and that’s probably why I went a little crazy. For the first time since I joined CelebMix in May, I didn’t post anything on there for over a week.
When I don’t write for a while, it’s like something is weighing on me. There’s usually a bit of guilt, because I feel like I’m letting the site down. But there’s always something else, some strange part of me that needs to be constantly fed with my own words. And I think that hunger, that weird, unexplainable hunger, is what differentiates a passion from a hobby.
While a hobby is something you simply enjoy doing, a passion is something you can do for hours on end. It’s something you work on until it’s perfect. A passion is what keeps you going through everything else. It’s the thing that’s always in the back of your mind, always the thing you’d rather be doing.
As much as I want to continue playing, my ukulele might end up in the back of the closet in a few years. But I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I wasn’t constantly writing in some capacity. I’m still young, and I’m still figuring things out. I’m glad that I’m able to explore different hobbies. It’s awesome that I have the opportunity to teach myself how to play the ukulele- just because I feel like doing it. But I also feel incredibly lucky to have discovered that writing is a passion of mine.
Well, this post definitely went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. But so does life, right? I think that’s all I have to say, so enjoy this crappy video of a girl and her ukulele.
https://twitter.com/rietherie/status/826517325964800000
See you same day, next month.
-Annemarie (#27)
Share your thoughts with us on our Twitter @Fuzzable, or tweet me @rietherie to validate my ukulele skills (please).
