Written by: Sofia Tas-Castro
If you’ve known me for a while, or just seen me in passing, you would see my laptop is covered in stickers. Currently, it displays stickers of my favorite characters and Mofusand Cats that I bought with friends and my Japanese teacher during my study abroad in Japan. Looking at them, I can recall where and when exactly I bought them and what I was feeling at the time. They’re a way for me to explain my interests to other people and serve as a great conversation starter.
This hobby of mine started during my senior year of high school, when I realized I wanted a way to show my love for my favorite books, TV shows, and characters in a non-expensive and cool way. This practice of covering an object, be any object you want, in a variety of stickers has been dubbed “sticker bombing.” You can get creative with placement, such as covering stickers with other stickers, organizing them neatly so each sticker can be seen, or organizing them by category to name a few.
But I don’t sticker bomb my laptop just because I think it’s cool. I sticker bomb it because the device doesn’t feel like mine if I don’t. It doesn’t seem very introspective at first glance, but that process of deciding which stickers to put and where, gives me the freedom to reflect on what I love and lets me tell others in a way I choose why I love these things. Without stickers on my laptop, I don’t feel as connected to my creative side as I want to be. Seeing those characters while I write or do homework reminds me of my aspiration to create characters with similar depth because of how much I admire other authors’ works.
So why is this a big deal? Well, to be completely honest, the art of having hobbies or expressing yourself creatively is a dying art. People, unfortunately, don’t know what hobbies they have. They stutter out an “I don’t have any” or if they have one hobby they can’t list any others. I’m also included in this, because when people ask me what my hobbies are, I sometimes also stutter an “I don’t know.” But at the end of the day, smaller hobbies like these stickers let people know what I like and don’t like. For example, I’m a huge fan of the artist Juno’s Mofusand Cat series (as you can probably see from my laptop) and used a lot of those stickers because of my appreciation for her work. The cats aren’t there just because they’re cute. Rather, they remind me that I want to learn Japanese to read their comics and that Japan is a hub of creative inspiration and changing identity in the arts, written and visual. I explain this to people, and when they see those cats on their social media feed or in stores, they’ll send me pictures with captions like “I remembered you love these cats and thought this would make your day!”
Having hobbies isn’t solely a way to combat social media addiction. It’s a way to find out your own likes and dislikes and to get those awkward introductions when you meet new people out of the way. Most importantly, it’s a way for people to learn who you are on your own terms. A lot can be revealed about a person from their hobbies. For example, a person who collects Pokémon cards demonstrates their ability to pay attention to detail and their tenacity for searching and waiting for what they truly want. A person who loves to go to the gym has a love for their own health but also for pushing themselves to their limit and trying to see what their body is capable of.
So please take time out of your schedule for your hobbies, and remember that they aren’t just hobbies: they’re pieces of your personality and a crucial part of your self-care. And if you don’t have any yet, take some time to search for them. It’s never too late to pick up a hobby, just like it’s never too late to drop a hobby if it isn’t bringing you joy anymore. Anything can be a hobby if you’re passionate about it, it lets you express yourself, and it brings you joy.
Featured Image Caption: My current laptop sticker-bombing, a collage of stickers from Japan bought during my study abroad.
