Hi all. I have some time this summer (teacher holidays!) and I’d like to try a new activity. Looking for some ideas. Over the last year I have tried lots of new stuff / had some great new experiences including:
Joining a book club for short while.
Swimming lessons
Lots of dance lessons (and a dance vacation)
Performing as a musician in two musicals.
Adventure vacation in Mexico
I’d like to try some new things, as exploring new stuff over the last year really has opened me up. Some ideas I’ve brainstormed include:
Take a Bartending course
Take a cooking course
Yoga
Singing lessons
Another reading group
Renew my first aid training
Explore a martial art?
I will be taking more dance lessons and likely be making a trip to N.Y / Montreal as well. Any other ideas?
Scuba diving or skydiving?
Learning to scuba is fairly easy, and it opens up a bunch of wonderful places for vacations.
Next time I have some real downtime, I want to take a cake decorating course.
Archery. It’s fun, relatively easy to learn, it can take as little or as much time as you want/have, you don’t necessarily need to leave the house/yard (assuming you have one) if you don’t want to, and should a zombie apocalypse (or some other more likely crisis) occur, you’ll possess a valuable skill.
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I did a tandem skydive many years ago. Very little training needed - I think we watched a half hour video or something. Jumped again the same day with the same instructor - the second time he let me steer while in the air and while landing. Definitely a fun bucket list item. Insane adrenaline rush.
Scuba is more a relaxing, amazing experience. Unless you are in a very specific area going for a very specific goal, it’s more of a hobby to take up. But once you’re certified, it’s something you can work in while on various trips. I have friends that were skiing down a mountain and noticed a dive flag. There was a spring back there, and they went for a dive in the middle of their ski trip! If you do pick this up, you’ll have to come down to South Florida for a dive. And then hit the real places, out in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific.
If you want to branch out, you could try something in the visual arts: take a course in painting, ceramics, claymation, stained glass, etc. You mentioned you were a musician - it’s always been a goal of mine to learn the basics of composing music.
If not that, I know people who’ve had a blast learning to code computers in their spare time. If you could find some classes near you, it’s meant to be a really rewarding and satisfying activity once you get good at it.
Maybe you’d like to work with animals? You could volunteer with your local animal shelter and take care of a wide variety of pets.
I encourage pretty much everyone to try skydiving- I did it lots of times and I’m still alive. Never tried scuba diving but I always wanted to. You could add ziplining to your Vancouver trip and go for the total adrenaline experience.
Learning martial arts sounds interesting; so does taking a cooking course. Maybe you could combine the two and become a Ninja Chef.