Burning Yourself Out

[Peacemaker]

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about how much we've changed over the years or at least how much our interests have changed or have been altered through out the years. A lot of the stuff we were into heavily or talked about doing either came and went or sometimes they never came at all.

Which lead me to a thought, have you ever been on the verge of burning yourself out on steampunk. For me it's a lifestyle, I've been into it since I was a kid and it didn't even have a name. But you know sometimes I just don't feel very steampunk or in the mood for building, modding, putting on a cravat and waistcoat, reading sci-fi or living very Victorian. I always come back to it but some days I just want to do something else.  I still have the same decor in my home and I still wear the same clothes even though sometimes it's not to the extreme like it always is. The fascination comes and goes, the urges come and go and the inspiration comes and goes. I'll always be a steampunk, but some days I don't feel very steampunky.

How is if for you, do you see this as a hobby like anything else that you come to when you feel like it. Do you know anyone who was into it then walked away never to return. Maybe you are completely obsessed with steampunk and could never see your life as anything else. Or are you like me, you live it you look it you just don't always feel like it.

I'm sure all the great inventors of the time had other hobbies or didn't feel much like an inventor. I wonder how they cooped when desire, thrill and inspiration wasn't knocking at their door.

[KABAR2]

When a child I thought as a child....... one of those truths........
As we mature interests will change when I was in my late teens through late twenties I was
a Revolutinary War re-enactor.... did I burn out? no not really but other things became more
of an influance in my life, and there had been a bit of a tiff in one of the groups I had belonged
to..... it's leader was going through a devorce and was playing around with two ladies..... let's
just say it could have got ugly.....
.
I am now 51 years old... and here I am in the Steampunk world all I can say is your interests may
change as you get older enjoy them while they last and move on with the memories ..... remember nothing says you can never come back....... the great thing about Steampunk is age doesn't seem to matter....

[Dr Fidelius]

I don't play Dungeons and Dragons as much as I did thirty-five years ago. I don't clown as much as I did thirty years ago. I don't go birdwatching anywhere near as much as I did twenty years ago. I don't fish as much as I did ten years ago. I don't know if I will be doing Steampunk in five years, but for right now the steampunk community and my interests are running in convergent paths.

Hobbies wax and wane in importance during the course of a life.

[MWBailey]

I used to weaer a cowboy hat and work in a DIY store. Now I DIY all sorts of things and shop in a DIY store. I used to wish I could mess around with nunchaku and watched MA movies. Now I practice nunchaku kata for exercise's sake and laugh at old MA movies. I play banjo, fife, and flute, whereas thirty years ago you couldn't get me to pick up a guitar or anything else because my folks and the music teachers had scared or ticked me off to the degree where I wasn't interested.

I'll probably always be a steampunk, because I always was one and just didn't know it. But yes, some days I just want to wear nothing more steamy than my suspenders, a shirt, and a ratty old flannel shirt or my old down vest. (with pants and all else, of course, I don't go around wearing no pants when I walk outside in teh winter ).

Sometimes you just need a rest and want to wear your Old Ratties to the bluegrass Jam...

[Lady Ava]

I've been accidentally steampunk for all my life so far, as have many MANY others on this fabulous forum. I don't dress as steampunk as I probably could, but I have recently begun making and selling steampunk clothing, after quitting my job to be a full-time steampunk, as it were.