On “becoming an adult and moving on”

[MattC (Matt C M)]

I started Yo-yoing when I was around 12 years old and I’m still here at 33. I’ve taken some breaks to work on other avenues of life to pursue happiness but the truth is that this community has always been a positive one for me to be a part of. And that I think is the real secret to life, I’m probably wrong. Understand your question here is a loaded one as we are all walking this earth at the same time with different perspectives and different measuring sticks. Literally. What I consider to be the “goal” of achieving adulthood could be completely different than you, and we can still both find a place of happiness.

As you said, it could be education, kids, buying a house, getting married, getting a divorce, losing a family member… I have seen it all in these forums over the last 20 years as I’ve been banging around in one of these online formats since the ES days.

Whats important I think at the end of the day is that we love each other and OURSELVES. Which that last part is very hard for somepeople, including myself. But if we truly promote love and try to pass that energy off, that is usually what I find in return. That is my “being” an adult. Showing respect to people and truly finding ways to love people, even if I disagree with their opinions of religion or maybe even politics.

As for moving on, I hope I never do. I was handed a Yo-yo by my father who was in his 40’s and he died in 2016 with a short battle with cancer at the age of 55. The doctor found his cancer that had covered over 90% of his body due to a mass growing behind his eye, my dad had never missed a day at work, did heavy lifting at work everyday for forty years and showed no signs of ever being sick until they found the cancer. He quit working and was dead less than 6 months later. My dad’s story will always be a factor on my story and my perspective to life, I just can’t help those feelings from coming out when I think of “moving on” from something we did together and enjoyed learning together.

I say no matter what your version of an adult is, either it be with a Yo-yo or not, we should just try to be good human beings to each other. I work in a courthouse as well, so I could go on and on about this as I see people facing murder and rape charges daily.

ELE

Everybody love Everybody.

[Sleeper80 (Justin Priesing)]

i don’t wanna grow up. i’m a toys r us kid. not sorry.

[LeftyThrower24]

I think I understand where this dude is coming from. When I stopped around the time I was heading off to college, I thought with studying and girls and parties etc it would just simply not happen ever again. Too many “adult” things going on. Although it never did during that time, a few years after I had graduated, settled down and got in a serious relationship, I stumbled across a yo-yo tik tok and the rest is history again. My advice would be always keep your favorite one somewhere. Someday you might see something and it will bring back the joy and emotion of the hobby for ya and in which case you’ll be happy to have that old yo-yo lying around

[POspot (Michael di Gregorio)]

I hope you’re moving on will see you moving into bigger better things in your life.
Congratulations what ever the endeavor.

I wound agree hang onto something or a few special ones. You will not regret it. Yo-yos are made for the ups and down of life you never know when you may need to pick one up.

Put your energy where it needs to be.
Yo-yos and the yo-yo people will be here for you when you return.

You say no….in the moment now,

Many of us have… But here we are

Oh who ever told you your hobby is not for adults does not like you. If it was you, you should be nicer to yourself. Ha ha ha

Everyone have a great rest of the week

[yodude19]

I understand this entirely. When you get older, you realize you don’t have as much time as you used to - and a lot of times, you have to spend money in other places that you don’t necessarily want to spend it, but it becomes a necessity. I got into yoyos back in 2005 - I was in 5th grade. When I wasn’t in school, I was playing with my yoyos. Wish I could still do that!!

I do see how it would be difficult to carry on multiple hobbies and be fully invested into them. I guess it boils down to how we want to invest our time and money. I have taken many hiatuses from yoyo (1+ years at times), but I always come back around to it. I’ve tried to take on many new hobbies and I usually get caught up in “honeymoon” phases where it’s all I want to do. I eventually get kinda bored of them & I always find myself with my yoyos again.

Back in 2011 I decided that I was done with yoyos forever (boy was I wrong) - I basically sold my entire collection. I was 17 and having a few hundred bucks to blow felt awesome. I regret selling everything & I always look at old pictures of my collection and beat myself up a bit. I’ve learned that even if I’m on the verge of quitting this hobby I will never shut the door on it. I’ve learned from my mistakes on that!

[aminalcollective]

if becoming an adult means giving up the fun things that i love then im going to be an overgrown 8 year old until i die

[mable]

Yoyos are just too broad of a hobby to ever move on from. So many styles to learn, an unlimited number of tricks to create, countless new styles of yoyoing just waiting to be invented.

Then there’s the application of that knowledge and skill accrued. You could use it to make artistic videos, you can use it for self expression for nobody other than yourself, you can be competitive with it. You could even just display them on a wall and take pictures of them if that’s what’s most enjoyable to you.

Yoyoing is too cool, there’s such an insane number of ways to enjoy and engage with them. They’re also a pretty good social outlet.

[yoyo_cubicle (Ray)]

@mable

Then there’s the application of that knowledge and skill accrued.

My daughter had a really bad knot in her shoe laces yesterday. I said “Let me fix that for you, I’m a knot removal pro.”

[Pun1sh3R (Cody)]

This is a great topic. Thank you to all that shared their “Life Experience” and choices.

My story is similar to some and different than others. As said before, there is no correct way to do life, other than living it. We make the best decisions at the moment, then live with those choices. Sometimes they work out, other times they don’t. Its what we do when things don’t work out that defines us (IMO).

There is a big change between our Late Teens and Late 20’s that we go through. Finding our selves and purposes in life, without the safety net we had at home. For me, this was a fun and exciting time. School, different Jobs, sports, and life in general. I think it is during this time that while we may not “Know” what we want to do, we tend to learn quickly what we don’t want to do.

I applaud the lady or gentleman in this situation. They have made a choice and are pursuing a passion. What we think of it is irrelevant. I get the “Dont do what I did.” But more often than not, we learn more from our mistakes than getting it right the first time.

My 20’s were finding myself. Establishing a career that I loved. There was little time left for extra during this phase. While I had been Yoyoing, they went into a box and remained there for almost 15 years. “My” priorities during this time did not include many things.

My 30’s were establishing a Family. What a fun adventure. While the career worked well in the first 5 years, that job ended and I had to find another. Focus and hard work ensued and while I don’t make the money I once did, I am back to a career I love.

40’s New Career Established, my Family doing well, I found my Yoyos and am back to the Hobby. Time will always be an issue, no matter what we do in life. For me now, it is an enjoyment. Even taking 5 minutes while something else is going on. I think setting realistic/attainable goals and expectations is important, not just in Yoyo, but life also.

We will be here when they come back. Progress will be made on the yoyo. That was a huge learning coming back. My top-of-the-line, 20 years ago is nowhere near where yoyos are at now.

Yoyo has withstood the test of time. They are not POGs or Beanie Babies that will fade off into oblivion. There will be new yoyos when they return, play styles. It may not be what they are used to now, but they will find something upon return.

I guess the short answer is: Never moved on, just took a lengthy break.

Have fun.

[Dirtbag_edc (Jack morris)]

this is almost identical to my experience. except i stopped at 19 and picked it back up at 40.

[suspense (nobotik)]

Saying I’m going to quit yoyoing is like saying I’m going to quit breathing. I can not comprehend.

[Beverchakus (Ty McClellan)]

Cool topic! Here’s my view on it.

While i am technically an adult, 32 years old. I never felt that i transitioned into adulthood. There’s a lot of adult things that i simply do not do or think about, but instead, the adults around me (my wife mainly) makes sure i do the adult things when i have to. Anyways, that’s unrelated, not saying i play with yoyos because i’m a child like adult, there’s alot more to it than that, just thought i’s toss out that fact.

Yoyoing for me a alot like skateboarding. It’s hard, it feels amazing when you get control of it, and there’s ALWAYS something to chase. It’s not a game you can beat and set aside as “finished”. And that is addicting, chasing the flow, the tricks, the contests, the friends… all these things have no end.

More importantly for me. Yoyoing (like skateboarding) is calming. I’m a person who struggles with ADHD, and on those days where my mind is going absolutely nuts with 1000 thoughts at once, there is NOTHING better then picking up a yoyo and letting my brain shut down for a while. Where the focus is so intense, my mind has no capacity to be anywhere else, but here, with this yoyo and this trick. Yoyoing puts me in the moment, truly. Which is rare for someone like me.

Of course, this can get outta hand sometimes when it’s 3am on a work night and i’m still trying the same trick for the 300th time. But that’s beside the point. That’s something i need to work on. Again, i’m bad at adulting.

Point is, yoyoing as a kid, adult, or old man, it will continue to provide me those moments of brain calm. Which is very important to me. It’s a huge reason i’ve been riding a skateboard for 26 years. But i can’t skate when i’m hurt or when the weather sucks. But i can always pick up a yoyo. And if that is looked down upon by other adults, they just don’t get it and can go pound sand. And i’m perfectly ok with that.

[kevinm]

Growing old is unavoidable for most humans. Growing up is optional.

[Orion22 (Curtis M)]

I could never do it. Every single hobby I have enjoyed has only increased in value, both to me and the USD. Always easier to sell something than to get it back.

[WickerWraith]

@Isaac

If you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by becoming a “full adult”? Graduated university? Got a job? Got married? Have a child now? Turned 25 and can now rent a car? I’m just curious what it could mean that you would be limited to a single hobby for the rest of your life.

Regardless, I wish you luck with your sale. I would suggest keeping or using your BST proceeds to keep a single plastic yo-yo (the Plastic 000 would be my recommendation b/c you have a 000 in your BST post) for if/when you get the itch later on down the line. I say plastic so you can treat it like the toy it is and not worry about keeping it pristine or worrying about chucking it in a drawer or bag or box in the closet.

By full adult I mostly meant the actual change from having your life ultimately controlled by a third party to controlling it completely yourself, as well as having to pay for yourself instead of being paid for. By that definition I’ve been a “full adult” for a year, and it’s been by far the hardest year of my life.

The reason why I have to pick one hobby and drop the others is actually mainly because of the kind of hobby music is. You can spend your whole life dedicatedly learning instruments and writing songs and still not even know a fraction of what there is to learn about music. It’s a dedicate-your-entire-soul-for-eternity kind of hobby, and I plan to do just that.

You also don’t have to worry about me getting rid of EVERYthing, I did keep 10 that I am deeply attached to for one reason or another, but I really don’t intend on ever using them again, because all the time I could spend yoyoing I would rather spend doing something musical. It’s not that I don’t enjoy yoyoing, I’m actually quite sad to be doing this, I just enjoy music so much more that I should really never “waste time” yoyoing again.

[SR1 (SPENCE)]

As a musician myself (and a very serious one, jazz drums was my major in college) that has spent years and years literally pouring blood, sweat and tears into my craft… while I agree with what you said about spending your whole life learning/practicing/mastering your instrument/theory, etc and still not knowing a fraction of what there is to know about music… there’s still going to be downtime. There’s going to be time you want to spend doing other things. The “only music and NOTHING ELSE” approach is a one-way ticket to Burnoutville my man, I promise you - I’ve been there. To seemingly completely shut out the idea of not “intending to ever use” your yoyos again is odd to me - why would you at least not be open to using them when the musical inspiration isn’t there… or hell man, if you just want a break? And I’m not even talking about like week or month long breaks, I’m talking taking a short break during the day from doing whatever you’re doing. When I’m not working, and I’m able to practice drums, when I take my breaks, I’m throwing… and after a few minutes I’ll hop back on the kit. I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, but from musician to musician - don’t completely shut out the idea that it’s okay to toss around a yoyo once in awhile, is all I’m saying.

[hsb]

Every creative thing that I do is informed/inspired by all the other things that I do and experience in life.

[WickerWraith]

I really appreciate the concern! And I hear your advice, but unfortunately circumstances are just a touch different for me. I NEVER had the time to throw my whole collection, and they’re all players, NOT just collectors items, so I feel the need to get the majority of them into the hands of people that will use them, simply because the last decade has proven to me that I can’t. And also this huge change has actually been almost exclusively because I’ve had the sudden and powerful realization that I want to make music until the day I die. There’s no way for me to explain it in a way you’ll all understand, but I feel like the reason I’m here in the first place is to make music. I’m not a spiritual person whatsoever, and I actually tend to be annoyingly logical in most situations, but I can feel something I’ve never felt before telling me that I NEED to make music.

[Sleeper80 (Justin Priesing)]

I think wasting time playing music is no more adult than wasting time playing yoyo. it sounds like yo just prefer to put your time into music.

[WickerWraith]

Thanks, this is a good perspective I hadn’t considered… It doesn’t matter how much you love someone or something, if you NEVER take a break from it or them, you WILL end up hating it/them. It’s all about balance. I’ll remember to keep that in mind as I pursue music.