HOBBIES

            Hobbies are an important part of our lives. The pace of the modern world is crazy, people have little to no time to spare, but they still find a favourite occupation. A "hobby" is a special interest or activity that you do in your free time. Hobbies can be divided into three big groups: doing things, making things and collecting things. Doing things means doing something for the pleasure of doing it: painting, singing, dancing, playing computer games, learning languages, volunteering and going in for sports. When you are making something you get a new thing in the end. Cooking, knitting, cross-stitching, quilling, scrapbooking, photography all belong to this group. You can collect a great variety of items: coins, stamps, stickers, soap and so on. Some private collections are really valuable.

            People do hobbies for many reasons: for stress relief, to express themselves, to communicate with others, to have a feeling of control or a keen sense of achievement, to relax, to learn new things, to develop their mind or imagination or to keep fit. For some of them hobbies later become their jobs.

            It is vital for teenagers to have rewarding hobbies.  They help to build confidence. It’s if they feel like they actually are in control of something they love to do. Hobbies help teens not to get bored. If they had more good hobbies, there wouldn’t be as much violence or criminal activity going on today.

            Unfortunately about 20 per cent of young people indicate that their parents, friends or teachers have actively discouraged them from following their interest. A lot of teens could use support and guidance from adults and peers.

Let me describe my hobby for you. I am fond of cross-stitching. To do this hobby you should be creative, passionate, independent and patient. This pastime has numerous advantages: you can make beautiful presents for your friends, decorate your flat, relax and enjoy a great movie at the same time. However, it has some disadvantages, too: it is time and money-consuming and you can lose your temper when something goes wrong. My parents discourage me from doing it, because I spend too much time alone. Nevertheless, I enjoy it and recommend it to my friends, so we can do it together.

            To sum it up I’d like to say that hobbies differ, just like people’s tastes and interests. But to my mind every person should find a hobby, which is suitable for him, because hobbies help us to improve ourselves and to get rid of stress.