Among all the places I’ve been to, the most amazing trip of my life was the week I spent in my best friend’s village in Odisha years ago. Over those seven days, I experienced things I’d never done as an urban girl: immersing myself in the wilderness, gathering leaves and flowers near the house, milking a cow, and eating fresh fish I’d caught myself. Those memories have lingered with me, sustaining me through tough city days—like gridlocked traffic, news of worsening AQI, roads everywhere torn up for construction, and doomscrolling the whole commute home. They stir in me a longing for the feel of a fishing rod in my hand and the pull when my bait is struck. I’d rather my fingers touch the softness of a petal than the hard metal of a smartphone. On those days, I drift off to sleep, dreaming of the skills my hands will pick up on my next trip. It turns out I’m not alone in ranking “hobbymaxxing”—deliberately carving out time on vacation to hone creative talents—as a top priority. Exhausted by relentless real-world hardships, people are promoting ‘side quests,’ ‘serial hobbies,’ and ‘funmaxxing’ as fresh approaches to daily life—through bite-sized joys that recharge them to press on. Reports indicate that ‘passion travel’ is gaining popularity as a vacation style across all age groups, whether it’s young people pursuing hobbies like geocaching—a GPS-based treasure hunt—or retirees embracing the SKI (Spending the Kids’ Inheritance) trend to favor fresh experiences over bequeathing a large inheritance to their children.
