Hobbies

jvgig · April 17, 2009, 6:51pm

I have been looking into this whole dorm thing and it seems to work out to between 80-95sqft/ person in a double. I will be attending PSU for engineering. As a result of the space constraints, I am starting to think that I will have to abandon my hobbies that I have spent so many years developing for my college years which is, understandably, not going over so well. My top four hobbies/activities are visual art, skiing, animating, tending to my fish, and watching movies/listening to music.

Since I will be an engineering major and will be moving on to grad school, it does not appear that I will be able to fit a formal art class into my schedule, and due to already limited studio space, PSU said that they would likely be unable to offer me any space to work. I like to paint large and in traditional oil paint and traditional mediums which all happen to be toxic. I also enjoy working with pastels. Pastel dust is also toxic. At home I work in a good sized room with good ventilation and that can be shut off from the rest of the house. In other words, I would not even considering painting/drawing were I and another person have to sleep. Also, I need an easel to support the canvases which are usually at least 30x40. My current easel has a 24"x30" footprint (not including canvas) and is heavy. Even if I were to find a friend in the art department who would let me use an easel, I would still have to store all of my supplies. I currently have a cabinet 36x24x48 filled with supplies. Even if I make drastic cutbacks, I still need quite a bit of storage space.

I love to ski and during the winter months it takes priority over everything else. I realize that I may not be able to ski for 4 or 5 hours every day like I do in high school, but I cannot go without it. I currently have 3 pairs of skis, all of which I use regularly and need to be tuned regularly. The skis vary in length from 165 cm to 186cm and I need a place to tune them. As I ski very aggressively tuning is not optional if I want to keep myself from being wrapped around a tree. Also, to save time, I use harder waxes which also tend to have toxic fumes. I currently do this in the garage with a fan and the doors open. Then you have all of the other equipment to store including boots, clothing, helmets, poles, etc. This stuff takes up 3 large dresser drawers to store and it is rather snug.

As a new hobby this year, I have really gotten into animating. I have done hand drawn animation and claymation. To be practical this requires a fairly capable computer with multiple displays, a decent tripod, lighting and camera/lenses. I am sure I can find somewhere to build temporary sets, but I still have to store all of the equipment. This requires the least amount of space as I will need the computer and displays anyways, so it is really just the modeling space and photography equipment.

I also love tending to my fish. I have a 200 gallon saltwater reef and a 50 gallon tank with an octopus. Obviously I cannot bring a 200 gallon aquarium to the dorm, or probably even a 50 do to size and weight. Also, the pumps are not the quietest things and it can create an unpleasant aroma if I get behind with the cleaning. Again, not something that I would want in the same room where I have to sleep.

While I could go to the theaters or to a concert to get my movie and music fix, the costs will add up quickly if I want to take a date. Figure $20-50 per show. On top of that there are very few theaters that I have been to that I actually enjoyed due to the lacking sound and picture quality and the disruptive audience. I am used to a 60" screen with above average surround sound system with pretty darn good stereo quality. Again, this encompasses an entire room and as such would be unpractical for college in addition to the expense. However, I think that a mid level 40" screen with some quality used bookshelf speakers would suit nicely.

After going over all of my activities and looking at the space required, even if I did not leave any walking space on my half of the dorm, I would still be hard pressed just to fit everything. Unfortunately, I get hungry and tired every now and then so I also need the typical bed, chair, and refrigerator. While I am not the only one who uses it, I currently pretty much dominate over 500 square feet of my parents home for my activities alone.

I also play tennis, do a little mountain biking, and roller blade a bit.

To add to these activities, as a college student, I expect to expand my interests, but as you can see my current hobbies are not well suited to college dorm life. I just feel that if I abandoned my interests I will have thrown away most of my life and will not be very happy. Has anyone else encountered a similar situation? How did you deal with it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dreamin_in_Japan · April 17, 2009, 7:46pm

I’m not sure if my advice will be much help, but you have to realize that you have to sacrifice some things when dorming with other people. I love to blast Japanese music and do the choreography to PV’s in my room for exercise. But I know I can’t possibly do that in college. So I compensate and exercise by going to the gym.

How far will you going away from home? Remember there are breaks in the school year will you can go home and catch up on your hobbies.

For painting/drawing. You’ll have to sacrafice the painting, but you can always be large sketch book and draw away. I know it’s not the same thing, but what are you going to do: it’s college, you really don’t have much of a choice.

With Skiing, I think you’re going to have to replace that with other acitve activities. Set goals to bulk up at the gym or something to distract you. I don’t really know how you can closely replicate that.

With the claymation, you’ll have to save that for your home visits.

With the big screen and whatnot, you could just be being a little unrealistic. Sometimes you gotta be like everyone else and just watch movies at the theater or on a small TV in your room. Sometimes colleges have free movie nights and stuff.

You just have to look at things in different perspectives. Going a year without all that stuff you can learn many things about yourself. If you stick it out for a year, you can apply to become an RA your second year and get your own dorm room. You still won’t be able to paint, but you could probably store a lot more of your things. You just have be strong and wait a year; it’s the most mature thing you can do.

Otherwise, your interests sound pretty cool. You seem pretty talented. I wish I had hobbies like that. :)

jvgig · April 18, 2009, 12:21pm

I am about a 2 hour drive from State College, but since I dont have a car, there will be very few opportunities to come home except for breaks.

While I understand that I will have to cut back on the scale and amount of my activities due to time and space, I honestly do not think I could skip a ski season or abandon my painting. However, I may be able to wait until breaks to get caught up on recent film releases or start my next animation.

From what I have been reading, it seems like aquariums in dorms are usually limited to 10-20 gallons, which require much more precision that I will probably have time to commit, especially since I wont have a RO system at college, water changes would become very expensive and time consuming. After all, my octopus, who is my favorite, will probably die before the end of the year, so it seems rather foolish to setup up a 50 gallon aquarium which requires several months to get set up just to put in an octopus in its last days of life, if it even survives that long.

I also really dont know how much time I will have to dedicate to my activities. In high school I use nearly every hour that I am not in school to further my hobbies as I dont do any school work/ studying outside of the classroom. I am under the impression that this is not a likely scenario in college, so that could change my priorities.

Maybe I will have to go back to acrylic paint for my time in the dorm if I cant find a friend to hook me up with some studio space. Acrylics dry fast, have practically no odor, are easy to clean up, and are non toxic.

I may just have to give psu a call, but do college dorms offer additional storage space for sporting equipment? Students must keep their bikes somewhere, especially in winter months?

Hopefully I can manage to get an apartment or small house for my sophomore year to give me some more space.

Thanks for the help.

Hobbies

CONNECT WITH US