It’s graduation season for a lot of seniors in high school and college. Recently, I saw a lot of college seniors in their gallant robes on my commutes. It got me thinking about their youth, their potential dreams, and what they will have to face in the real world.
I then listened to something I heard that I wish young adults would appreciate - find hobbies that you never monetize.
When I first started this blog a long time ago, I had some thought in thinking about how to monetize my writing into something bigger. A friend even suggested I use things like Google AdSense for ad revenue. But over time, I felt that something wasn’t right. I put in so much work and I didn’t seem to get the financial opportunities I wanted with regards to manga.
Over time, I realized that doing something I love as a job isn’t always worth it. I did get a paid opportunity with regards to fandom once, but I realized that despite my passion, I wasn’t really willing to grind for it or as passionate as I thought I was. (Note: being passionate about 1 series in a genre DOES NOT make you passionate about the entire genre.)
What’s interesting now is that there’s more jobs for anime and manga than ever before. But as someone might tell you, working in a field you’re passionate about isn’t for everyone. If you’re not good at what you do no matter how hard you work, all the passion will go away. Work is still work even if it can get fun at times.
That’s why I say it’s okay to have hobbies as hobbies. I know a lot of young people are pressured to find their passion. Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life, as the saying goes. A lot of that advice is well-intended, but it’s not contextualized to fit every person’s needs/wants. I also think that being “good enough” isn’t emphasized enough.
That’s why I love this advice given from an episode of It’s Going to Be OK to high school graduates about hobbies. Credit for these words goes to Caroline Moss, host of Gee Thanks, Just Bought It.
“Cultivate hobbies that make you happy and then do not try to monetize them. You’re gonna hear a lot of people tell you to do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.
These people are lying to you. Capitalism is a non-stop grind. If you can’t divest from it completely and 100 percent of people cannot, find things that make you happy, hobbies that you enjoy, and then do them when you can, even if you’re bad at them, especially if you’re bad at them. Do not collect a dime from these hobbies and don’t even daydream about it.
Just enjoy doing something for the sake of enjoying it. It’s actually way harder than it sounds.”
I know there’s some manga folks who are having fun with Twitter and being able to get connections with industry folks. It’s cool and rewarding, but they all have regular jobs outside of manga for the most part. And I like to tell you that even when manga professionals are fans living their dreams and having fun at their jobs, they may tell you that the job nature of it all is super-stressful at times and they have non-monetized interests to help keep them sane.
I’ll use myself as an example of being interested in hobbies with thinking about money - K-Pop has been a new thing of mine since last year and I’ve been doing girl group dances with no desire to get better. I just want to have fun. I don’t want to be a part of a dance crew. I don’t want to be in a talent show. I relish being an amateur and listening to K-Pop has been a lift in exploring myself more as I get older.
I hate this push by Western people who think everything is all about money. It’s sad and no wonder why so many people are depressed or anxious. We work to live, not live to work.
So if you love to draw fan art, write fanfiction, do YouTube videos, write essays about your favorite media, stream, etc., do it because you love the hell out of it. If you want to make money off of it, do it because you actually want to and have the growth mindset to do so, not because someone told you to. If one day you get burned out from your hobbies, it’s okay to take a break. No one minds at all, believe me.
Hobbies are supposed to bring you joy and much-needed self-reflection. Nothing kills those important things faster than society’s view that you have to be productive and efficient in everything you do.
Kids, always be a fan of what you love and more importantly, be a fan of yourself first and foremost.