Maybe one of origami, juggling, crocheting, playing an instrument, creating a website
A ukulele rests in the corner of the flat that my kid uses for school music lessons. Cant hurt to fire up YouTube and try.
Knitting or woodcarving.
Both are cheap & easy to start and you begin with doing things that are useful.
You may end up in a more artsy trajectory or just keep at creating useful things.
Thanks! Good suggestions. Woodcarving appeals to my shitty carpentry chops. I never considered it, but will investigate.
"Academic" suggests you might have an ongoing opportunity to audit classes. Throw some darts and see if anything appeals to you. I started out in computer science, burned out on that in a quarter, took a quarter off, switched to linguistics, and then that plan was dead in the water the following fall after walking into my college newsroom.
One field I never took a class in? Journalism.
Interesting. I qualify for some classes and I've been doing qualitative work (focus on interviews and focus groups) for a long time. Investigative Journalism, especially now, has always intrigued me.
Learn to play Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.
It's a retro style game with a strong focus on survival and science! You can play at your own pace.
Have you considered a musical instrument?
I have not. No. Recommendations for the musically un-initiated?
Spend some time paying attention to the sounds that different instruments make. Remember which ones you like.
Borrow, rent, or buy one. (Preferably not a terrible one; the cheapest model of any given instrument is often not worth the frustrations it can cause.)
Maybe get a teacher, or maybe follow some online lessons, or maybe take a class, or maybe just experiment on your own for a while.
Make sounds. Maybe with other people. See what you come up with. It can be solitary or social, scientific or artistic, studious or playful.
If you eventually feel you've hit a plateau and want to continue improving, consider learning some music theory and technique.
It's a deep and wide subject.
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