My Hobbies
Hey everyone! I wanted to take some time so you could get to know me, Susanna, the person behind all of these blog posts on ATS.
The summer is always an amazing time for me to put time into all of the things that I love doing and to get better at writing for my blog, crocheting, playing different video games, you name it.
Lately, I have been spending the bulk of my time either working at my internship or working at home on my blog. I get a lot of questions from friends or family members after they find out about my blog.
“Why would you do that when you could just focus on engineering? Isn’t that your major?”
“What are you trying to gain from blogging?”
“Are you trying to make money from this?”
“Ok, but it’s just a hobby, right?”
I’ll dive into these more another time, but long story short, I love writing about experiences that I go through, and I, for the most part, am a fairly open book with everyone around me. Engineering doesn’t have a lot of room for that type of writing, and blogging has given me a lot of experience when it comes to conveying my thoughts onto paper.
I have loved it so far, and I definitely plan to continue for a long time. I have some fun ideas that I cannot wait to tackle and share with you all!
Outside of All Things Susanna, I have been making time to play lots of video games with my friends. We currently have a Minecraft realm going, so we can all play together. It is a great opportunity for us to catch up with each other since we’re all in different spots for the summer. My sister Catherine is also in the realm with us, and her little quips here and there create lots of entertainment for everyone.
I have some other video games that I enjoy rotating through when Minecraft becomes a little less enticing. Stardew Valley is one that I started playing this past January after my roommates got me into it. I also still play The Sims with my sisters, as we have for many years.
Just the other day, my youngest sister was playing The Sims and was keeping me updated with all of the drama that she was starting in the world she is currently working on. Watching her unleash chaos on all these poor sims is so entertaining.
Moving away from digital things, one of my other big hobbies is crocheting. My aunt taught me how to crochet when I was probably 7-8 years old, and I still love making things and learning new stitches and patterns to make something beautiful. Just under a year ago, I finished a 2-year long blanket project that I had started shortly after moving into the dorms at college. This blanket ended up being just a tad smaller than a 6-foot square, and I am very proud of how it turned out.
I started another blanket this past semester. It will be a little more like a patchwork blanket with a bunch of granny squares that I will stitch together at the end. The tough thing with this project is that it is a lot harder to see how much progress is being made, and I also need to keep track of all the pieces I have made.
The other day I just wanted to mindlessly work with my hands, so I just crocheted a large rectangle out of some extra yarn that I had laying around. I don’t know what I will do with it, maybe rip it out and make something else, but it was a good way to take my mind off of other things going on. I find crocheting very therapeutic for me. Similar to my writing.
Now, something I like to do while working on crochet projects is watch TV shows. There are not many current shows I watch where a new episode is coming out each week; however, the final season of Manifest just concluded on Netflix, and I finished that within the week of those episodes' release.
I started watching Manifest with my roommates in 2021 after we moved into our apartment together. We don’t all have Netflix anymore, so some of us stopped watching (surprise! Not me!). Please reach out if you want to talk about Manifest at all! I loved that show.
Other shows I enjoy watching are The Office (a classic), Friends (also a classic), Parks and Rec (I binged the whole thing in 2 weeks during my freshman year), and lately, a bit of Big Bang Theory. I had seen tons of clips from Young Sheldon popping up on TikTok or YouTube, so I was intrigued.
During the school year, especially the fall semester, it can be quite difficult to find time to dedicate to all of these different hobbies. I spend so much time at rehearsal for the Marching Band, and most of my weekends are booked, with at least 10-12 hours going toward football games on Saturdays.
On top of that, this coming fall, I will be in the position of captain for the Piccolo section, which adds on a few more hours each week. I also decided to do a full 18-hour class load this year, so that free time will be a minimum for sure.
I am waiting to decide if I want to do a concert band in the spring on top of doing the pep band because it has been so long since I have played classical music or movie scores or anything in that area on the flute. I play flute occasionally just for fun and to pick up the old concert solos that I had worked on, but playing in an orchestra or full concert band is a whole different experience that I loved all through middle school and high school.
I bet you can tell I like keeping busy! That’s why I have so many hobbies to pick from! Whether I am motivated or not, there are always good things for me to do. If you also enjoy these activities, I’d love to know! Reach out to me on Instagram or leave a comment below! Have a good day!