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.

[Frolicking Johnson]

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....

Well put, indded.

[James Harrison]

I personally find most of my hobbies and interests tune in and out and lead on to other things.  A mania in all things concerning railways developed into models and railway history developed into interests in Victorian technology developed into steampunk which is developing into... who knows? 

I can hold one interest whilst dropping another and then taking it up again.  I gave up entirely on model trains in my mid-teens, then came back onto them a year or so ago (and now find myself actually developing that interest further in a few months than I did in a decade... 14 year-old me would never have even attempted to scratchbuild a locomotive, now I have a full programme of ones to get around to.)

Point is, I think that 'burning out' is not necessarily a bad thing, or something to be guilty of, or try to avoid.  Sometimes you have to back off a little and give yourself breathing space; then when the mood takes you again you appreciate it that bit more and find you can do things you never thought you could before.   

[Professor J. Cogsworthy]

I'm expanding from other historical re-enacting.....

I'm thinking steampunk will let me get really creative without being limited by accuracy and my ability to document what I'm making....( which I also enjoy in those other interests....... and which I do not always let a lack of stop me )

[Kryss LaBryn]

Professor, I too am coming from a reenactment background, and yes, it's remarkably freeing to simply be able to say, "So, here's some period illustrations of clothes I like. Hmm. Think I'll take these sleeves from this dress and put them on that bodice from ten years later-- but I think I like this skirt better, and oh look, hasn't Professor Foglio done something neat with that vest? If I do something similar it will solve a problem very nicely for me. Yes it's not period but I don't care muahahaha-- Ahem.

I have been going in the direction of trying to match not only colours and patterns but fabric weaves, materials, and construction techniques (to the point of "Well, I like that neckline better but it was more common in Sweden and my persona and the colour of the dress is more Norwegian than Swedish, so even though 99.8% of the people I meet even at events won't know the difference I will, so I guess I'll go with the more historically correct neckline even though I don't like it as much and it's only the difference between a keyhole and a scooped neckline...") for so long that it's unbelievably refreshing to be able to do this and go, "I'm going to make a scoop neckline on my vest instead of a straight V even though the V is more correct because the scoop will frame my boobs better and I can ha ha ha!!"

So far as being burned out goes, I can't really see me getting burned out, per se, as it's been something I have been interested in for a long time without knowing it was an actual "thing", as others have mentioned. I can see my activity increasing and waning, though, especially if I become too discouraged at not having anyone around to play with, although so far the forums here are staving off that day.

But my fondness for the aesthetic will probably not go away.

[D.Oakes]

Yep another reenactor here.  I actually did burn out from that.  Mainly it was because I took on too many responsibilities: unit commander and 3 different impressions on top of being a jobless college student trying to keep a relationship together and party and still doing my best to keep my mother proud of me. 

Steampunk to me feels somehow different.  The Victorian era has always interested me from cowboys, to the Civil War, to the artistic movements, the furniture, the houses, the weapons...  There are many "heights" and "transitions" scattered throughout the era and it is tough to not find something "new" and interesting, especially when "steampunk" is thrown into the mix allowing one to have total artistic freedom to take those bits and pieces and throw in some fiction and modern technology.  I admit some days I really do not feel steampunk, but it's like a home.  You can take a vacation to anywhere in the world, but when you have a "home," as much as you may miss the places you've seen, it still feels nice being able to kick back and relax in the place you are most comfortable. 

When I get tired of home, I go away for a bit, but I know that when I finally miss it, I have a place to come back to. 

[santiagodunbar]

As some have stated, I think you can burn yourself out if you jump into taking too much responsibility in a short amount of time. I think some of this responsibility is unnecessary, in my experience. I have not burned myself out on steampunk, but I know a friend who has. He got caught up and fascinated by the whole thing and burnt himself out by trying to create a great outfit in a two week span in order to have it ready for the monthly steampunk night in my town. But by putting a two week constraint on himself to make a definitive outfit instead of just taking the time to piece together one over a couple months, he burnt himself out via stressing over making items and costs for buying already put together pieces instead of making them himself. People should just take it easy, although I know how difficult that might be when you are excited about a new prospect.

[greatestescaper]

It always amazes me at how well I do really fit in on this forum.  I have always seemed to be out of place among my family, my friends and my peers.  My grandparents were the few who became accustomed to my nature, and as such they could predict things that I would enjoy or not and also how I might react to other things.  However, they never really understood how I am.  Which is fine, I do not pretend to understand people that I really do not.  All I do ask is to just respect who I am.  And who I am was best described by my grandfather, in a word, as eclectic.  That's me, the definition of eclectic.

I have always been eclectic.  In all of my interests.  It was when I discovered the realm of steampunk that I found a place where I can relate to the folks there.  Since then I've found that steampunk is itself extremely eclectic.  As such, in all of my endeavors I do feel that there is a bit of steampunk essence there, even if it's during a Star Trek marathon or while sitting with my friends watching Surfs Up.  Someone on the forum, I do not recall who, once said that if you were to explain that you're wearing a nylon running suite because you are a traveler of time from the Victorian age that fell in love with a future date and it's fashions then yes you are still a steampunk.  I have to agree with that.  We're all eclectic on some level here and if it makes sense to you then that's what it's all about (much like the hokey pokey).

All of that said I do feel that there are times when I get a bit burned out.  In a simple case it is Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, and Jurassic Park.  There are times when I can watch one set of the three over, and over, and over, and over.....*5 hours pass* and over, and over, and then suddenly UGH, give me a break.  I can't sit through even one of them.  And similarly there are things from my past that I loved to do at the time and I simply out-grew or evolved away from.  In the end though, even if I might out grow something, all of my interests seem to fall under that vast umbrella of steampunk (and even if it is a very loose connection, the connection is there)  and so I can not really say that I'll ever outgrow or burnout of what I consider steampunk.

[Captain Marcus Stahlsturm]

Do I often stand on the bridge of my dear skyship Isabella, wheel in hand, hunting for fat East Indian trading ships and not feel like doing it? To be honest, yeah sometimes.  Im not even that much of a steampunk, not outwardly anyway.  Im at college (im English so not the same as uni) and don't have the time, money or workshop space to tinker and craft.  I've also gone to college dressed in full steampunk garb and was just so bored by a day of having to explain to people what steampunk is when they asked me why I was dressed as I was.  So instead i only dress up for special occasions but constantly daydream of airships, automatons and moving castles.  I live in a different world to the one I exist in. I never burn out but to me steampunk is more of a hobby than a lifestyle.