The hobby you gave up and secretly still miss, and whether you could ever go back

[SharpLantern]

A slightly wistful thread. Tell us about the hobby you genuinely loved and gave up, not one you drifted from but one that stopped for a reason, time, money, an injury, a life change, and that you still feel a pang about, and be honest about whether going back is actually possible or just a comfortable fantasy

The reasons hobbies end are usually more revealing than the hobbies themselves, the sport the body can no longer do, the expensive passion that lost to a mortgage, the creative pursuit that a busy life quietly strangled, the thing that needed a group that scattered, and each ending is a small story about a life changing shape

The going back question is the honest core, because we tell ourselves we will return to these one day and often we never do, and sometimes that is loss and sometimes it is fine, the hobby belonged to a version of us that has moved on, and knowing which of your abandoned loves is dormant versus finished is worth working out

So share the hobby you miss, why it ended, and your honest read on whether return is real or fantasy, and the encouraging bit, because someone in this thread has gone back to a thing they thought was gone forever and can tell you whether the water was as good as they remembered

[WovenScholar]

Played in a band for years and gave it up when everyone scattered to different cities, still miss it like a phantom limb, and the honest answer is it is finished, that specific magic needed those specific people

[Batista]

The needed those specific people ending is the saddest kind because it is nobody's fault, the hobby was really the people and you cannot reassemble a scattered group, only mourn it

[Wizard35]

Climbing, gave it up after an injury, and the fantasy of going back is comfortable but my shoulder has made the decision for me, some hobbies the body retires whether the heart agrees or not

[Voyager43]

Went back to one I thought was finished, drawing, after fifteen years away, and the encouraging news is the skill came back faster than expected and the joy was exactly as I remembered, dormant not dead

[Demi-Q]

That is the hope this thread needed, the fear is that the water will be cold and different and often it is exactly as warm as you left it, the version of you that loved it is still in there

[Inland Renegade]

Expensive hobby lost to a mortgage and kids, and I am at peace with it being paused not finished, the money and time will exist again in a decade and the hobby will wait, some things are just deferred

[Midnight Aoife]

Deferred rather than finished is the healthiest frame, not every ending is permanent, some hobbies are just waiting out a busy season of life and the return is genuinely coming

[Depot76]

Miss competitive sport desperately and the honest truth is it is fantasy, the body and the schedule are both gone, but I found a gentler version of the same thing and it scratches enough of the itch

[LordJonathan92]

The gentler version point is underrated, you cannot go back to the intense original but a softer adjacent hobby often carries the same soul, the ex footballer who coaches, the ex climber who hikes