“I want to learn to yodel,” said Natalia as she was walking out of the room.

I laughed. It’s always just the crazy things you say you want to try, but you never actually do. I say it, you say it, Natalia says it too. You go to a concert of your favorite music band and think how great it would be if you could play guitar like the people on the stage. Or you see a magician perform a card trick and think how cool it would be to do it the next time you are playing card games with your friends. But it’s just a thought. And thoughts are fluid; most of them never come back.

But Natalia’s thought was not fluid. Three minutes later, she came back with a YouTube video playing on her phone. “To learn how to yodel, you just have to master two important sounds…”

And that is how Natalia started learning to yodel. Did she master it after that 5-minute video? Of course not. But she discovered that she can do the two important sounds. And then she found out that it’s easy to put them together. And in a while, she could yodel. Not like a professional, but well enough for me to think how cool that is, and that I want to do the same.

That brought me to think about all the things in this world that we say we would want to know or do, but we never do them, nor even try. When somebody asks me what my hobbies are, I tend to blush, panic, and say something about reading books, and feel that I’m a lazy person because I don’t do anything. But I would like to play a musical instrument. Or know how to mix cocktails. Cook recipes that I invented. Make short movies. Play chess. Create latte art.

I could continue the list forever, but you get the idea. As the internet tends to motivate you, you can become anything you want. But not me because I have a couple of problems. I would never be able to play the guitar because I don’t have the ears for music. I cannot mix cocktails because I need money first to buy the ingredients. How can I invent new recipes when it seems that everything in this world has already been invented? And there are so many short movies out there that nobody will be interested in seeing mine.

It’s fair. All of the statements seem to be true. Except, they are not. Do I enjoy listening to music? Yes, so at least a part of my ear is, indeed, for music. Where is the nearest bar close to me? Could I start working there? If not, then I can sit there and learn the ingredients and preparation by watching. For the recipes – get my friends to buy random ingredients, cook from them without using the internet, and then enjoy my invention. Make the short movie, post it, play it during the next family visit, and share it with friends. Somebody has to see it.

All that I am trying to say with these lines is to enjoy life. And enjoy it fully, not just survive. Our hobbies and how we spend our days are responsibilities of each of us. We have free will; we should use it. It is simple – you want to do something, do it. Don’t overthink and don’t look for problems before you start the actual activity. If problems appear during it, solve them one step at a time. And as one of my favorite songs says: “If you don’t have enough time, stop watching TV” (that applies to TikTok and Instagram as well).

Be like Natalia. Because you can, indeed, become anything you want.

Sára Holosová