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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at NCSU chapter.

With everything we have going on as students it’s important to find affordable, accessible hobbies to help balance us up. It’s not always enough to just sleep after pouring into school for 5 hours straight. Now that I’m a senior, I find it much easier to prioritize my own hobbies and interests so I can put my best into the other aspects of my life. When you take a step back and prioritize the things that ground you, you’d be surprised how much your academics flourish. Even if all you save time for is one or two days a week, you can allow yourself an hour to do a productive hobby and build invaluable skills. If you’re stumped on how to get involved on campus or just ideas of things you can do in your home, here’s a few ideas of ways to enrich yourself hen school gets stressful. 

  1. Try a workout class
    • Check out what your campus gym has to offer in terms of group fitness classes. There’s so many interesting options that can broaden your horizon and give you time to yourself. You can invite a friend to tag along so you have some support and someone to get a treat with afterwards. Allowing those endorphins to flow and letting go of school stress is so vital to surviving the end of the semester. 
  2. Try cooking one new recipe a week.
    • Whether you prefer cooking, baking, or both you can find a simple and affordable recipe to try out. You can dedicate an hour to putting on something you enjoy in the background and following a new recipe. This can involve cooking for friends, roommates, partners, or just yourself. I find both cooking and baking very meditative and it’s nice to have a physical reward outside of your academic validation. And plus its super delicious and you can try new things                            
  3. Take up a hobby that can be gifted during the holidays!
    • With all kinds of winter holidays coming up, developing a crafty skill could allow you to create meaningful gifts for your family and friends. This can include candle making, crocheting, knitting, the list goes on and on. There are so many niche hobbies that are easy and accessible to start that make incredible gifts. Or you can make yourself something as a reward for all your hard work! Truly whatever makes you happy is going to be beneficial to your overall wellbeing. 
Marisa is a 4th-year Psychology major and a Non-Profit studies minor. She hopes to use her degree to work with non-profits around the Triangle in order to improve her community. Currently, Marisa serves as the events director of her chapter of Her Campus as well as peer mentoring for the Department of Psychology. On top of that, she works as a volunteer for A Place at the Table Raleigh. After graduating in 2025, Marisa plans to take a year (or more) off from school before returning to get her Masters degree in Psychology. Marisa has always enjoyed crafting, and has really embraced this side of herself all her life. Currently, her favorite crafts are crochet, knitting on the Sentro machine, collage, jewelry making, and candle making. Oftentimes she finds herself perusing the shelves of Hobby Lobby or Michaels in search of her new craft hyper-fixation. One of her favorite things to do is keep a creative scrapbook to abstractly put together some of her favorite memories and keep track of books and movies she enjoys.