Shadowing Practice: why you need hobbies in 2024 // rediscovering my hobbies as a burned out college student - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Hello everyone, it's Lynn again and 2024 is the year that we're bringing hobbies back.

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Hello everyone, it's Lynn again and 2024 is the year that we're bringing hobbies back.

The moment I started college,

all my hobbies just started to fall away one by one

because I got busy and I didn't know how to make time for them.

It has been my mission to practice good habits

and set aside time for my passions and the things I love because the last time I really focused on a hobby,

I made my YouTube career.

So I seriously believe that rediscovering your hobbies can help you cope with burnout,

redefine your daily routines, just find a better balance between work and play.

We're going to unpack my hobby rediscovery journey today.

For me, those hobbies are reading,

art, and video games, but it may look different for you.

One of my goals in 2024 is to actually reopen my little business,

maybe develop some products and sell artwork and other cool stuff again that's in the works.

And I am a sociology major,

which I love, but unfortunately,

I don't have the business savvy that I should manage marketing and finances and all that scary stuff.

And luckily, Skillshare has been there for me to develop those skills.

Skillshare is my favorite online learning community,

and they offer thousands of classes on an array of subjects.

Skillshare can help you sustain your hobbies and maybe one day turn them into something that's a side hustle.

And I've been looking to develop my marketing skills to begin an eShop.

I've always used a third-party selling platform,

but I really want to make my own website this year.

So Skillshare has this learning path called Your Creative Business.

Build it, brand it, launch it.

Which has helped me learn and review all the basics for launching a creative business,

including brand concepts, social media strategies, and more.

Skillshare is built for learning,

meaning there are no ads.

They are always launching premium classes.

And you can stay in tune and follow where your creativity takes you.

I think it's really important to have hobbies that stay hobbies

but it's also a dream come true when you can turn what you love to do into your full-time career.

And Skillshare has offered me both the technical and creative guidance.

So the first 500 of my subscribers to click the link in the description box

will get a one-month free trial of Skillshare.

Thank you so much to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.

And I cannot wait to share my creative projects with y'all.

I'm excited and I hope you're excited too.

And without further ado, we have some hobbies to attend to.

We are actually going to be starting with my evening routine of reading.

Throughout winter break, I would read from the morning into the afternoon,

nighttime into the early morning again.

But during the school year,

during 2023, I found two places to squeeze in reading time.

That was on my commute and also right before I went to bed.

Here's the thing though, sometimes I get motion sickness if I'm staring at something on the bus.

So some days it's just nighttime where I have a chance to read.

But since I had so much academic reading to do,

my way of quote-unquote reading at night consisted of webtoons and 803.

Okay, I admit it.

I'm guilty as charged.

There's nothing wrong with reading on electronic device.

I am more likely to get distracted and do other things.

And I feel like reading before bed,

one, is really helpful in replacing screen time so you're not endlessly scrolling.

And then two, when I'm actually reading with the light,

with a physical book, or even a separate e-reader that is not a smart device,

I get tired faster.

And it also helps my sleep schedule.

And if you are having a hard time picking up reading,

you don't know where to begin,

I have some recommendations for you.

So first off, this one can actually be read on your phone,

but I do own the hard copies and it's Heartstopper by Alice Oseman.

It's a webtoon turned graphic novel about queer relationships,

coming of age, mental health, friendship, family, everything y'all.

This is my comfort series.

I've been reading it since high school and because it's a graphic novel,

I think it's so easy to digest.

And yes, graphic novels, mangas,

illustrated stuff are still books.

It's still reading, okay?

That's not for debate here.

Charlie and Nick and the whole crew,

I know that they're amazing in a TV show.

I do enjoy the TV show,

but I'm telling you, it does not compare to the original material.

So you need to read this if you are a fan of a TV show.

The next couple books are going to be multi-generational stories because I am a fiend for some cross-generational family portraits, okay?

So following the theme of graphic novels,

this one is called The Best We Could Do by Tay Boy.

It is a graphic memoir about the author and her family story of immigrating from Vietnam to the U.S.

It's definitely heavier than Heartstopper.

I first read this on a train ride with my friend Tommy.

They lent me their copy and I finished it in one sitting

and it took me everything not to start sobbing on the Amtrak.

And of course, I read the book that I should have read years ago in 2023,

Homecoming by Yag Yazi.

I am dying to get a copy of Transcendent Kingdom now because she is so brilliant.

Another multi-generational story actually covers eight generations about two women who are half-sisters from Ghana who diverge.

So one ends up marrying a white man while the other is captured in a raid and eventually sold to slavery.

Beautiful, beautiful prose.

I especially love the dialogue.

I feel like this is just one of those books you gotta read.

Same thing with Pachinko, okay?

When I initially read this,

I had to take a break every 50 pages because I would just emotionally losing it.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm recommending a lot of tear triggers today.

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Another book that definitely pulled me out of a slump in 2022 is Babbel.

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Fun fact, R.F.

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Kuang went to my school for undergrad.

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It's a bit nuts because I actually had a professor who taught her

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and I realized the way she writes this book is exactly how my professor wants us to write our history papers.

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The amount of footnotes in this book,

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which you need to read all of them,

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reminds me of the history papers I wrote this semester.

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And I know R.F.

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Kuang's next book is supposed to be an enemies to lovers based on like their circles of hell and all that jazz.

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And let me tell you something.

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I have not read a good rom-com in a hot minute.

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I've tried, okay?

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And I've read decent, you know,

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romance books, but none of them have like scratched the urge and something I did in 2023.

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I was so desperate for a well done,

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not problematic, not misogynistic, angst-filled enemies to lovers that I decided to pick up Pride and Prejudice.

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I think Pride and Prejudice did enemies to lovers like no one will ever do.

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Jane Austen knew what was up so I read Pride

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and Prejudice for the first time because contemporary romances were just not cutting.

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I'm Sorry y'all, the Colleen Hoover epidemic needs to be controlled.

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Like what is going on?

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Give Pride and Prejudice a go,

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even if you're not into classics.

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You will eat it up.

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You will eat it up.

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I ate it up like .

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Those are some of my personal recommendations if you really want to dive back into literature.

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But I also recommend going back and rereading books that you know you love.

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Something I've been wanting to do is reread the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series.

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Also, go to your local library.

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The library I grew going to,

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I visited while I was home for winter break.

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I love to see that people are going and using the resources they have there and reading.

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I think this year, I'm going to get my library card here in DC and start checking out books again.

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But yes, me and Piplup and Kayla are gonna hit the now

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and read a few chapters of my current read which is my years of rest and relaxation.

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Good night.

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In terms of being crafty again and starting to paint and do traditional art,

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I think it was very important for me to set up my own space

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because art supplies can get really messy and something I focused on in December

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and the beginning of this year is organizing all my supplies

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and creating a vibrant colorful environment where I feel inspired

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and excited to make things and I'll be coming out with an office and desk makeover video very, very soon.

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I'm not sure if you know this,

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but in high school, I kind of gave up on art.

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I did not take a single art class,

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which I think always surprises people when I tell them like,

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yeah, I never really studied art formally.

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While I'm very happy that I get to do art and video editing,

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digital work for YouTube and my career,

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I'm usually too tired at the end of the day to pick up my personal projects,

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which is why I've neglected them throughout college.

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But two things have really launched me back.

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One, I know that fast fashion is a huge problem.

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Overconsumption is a huge problem.

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This year, I want to focus on altering my clothes and making things from scratch with dead stock fabric,

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dead stock materials.

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I was being serious in my New Year Old Me video.

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I don't want to buy any new garments this year because I have everything I could ever need.

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And if I feel like I don't love it anymore,

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I want to push myself to re-envision what it could look like and how I could wear it.

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And two, I love making things for other people.

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I think I always feel inspired when I have a purpose and a clear mission,

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like a birthday present, or I'm creating a graphic for a club.

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And a lot of the things I'm painting come from a place of love,

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from good memories that I share with them.

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And I cannot tell you how much Pinterest saves my ass when I'm just in a block.

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I've been using Pinterest more and more to gather inspiration,

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mood boards, for future projects.

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It exposes me to different styles,

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new ideas, color palettes, fonts,

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and other artistic concepts that just gets the ball rolling.

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And this is kind of far in the future and maybe not quite concrete of a goal.

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But I think it would be really cool to do an artist residency one day.

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And this is sort of my launch pad to think about a future like that.

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Out of all my hobbies,

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I think video gaming is the one that is misconstrued and mislabeled the most.

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When you paint or take photos or read,

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you have something to demonstrate,

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something to show to others when you're done.

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You can talk intelligently about a certain topic.

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You can show them a finished artwork.

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But video games are such a core memory of my childhood,

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both in my identity formation,

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in terms of shaping my interests,

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and also my relationship with my family and friends.

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For some reason growing up,

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video games were the antithesis of studying and getting good grades,

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which, doo-doo, I don't think that's true.

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I was a gamer growing up.

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I was cooking it up and cooking mama,

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and I was also cooking in my grades and getting straight A's in elementary school, okay?

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Like everything else in life, in moderation, it's great.

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I'm sorry, if you play League of Legends for hours on end every day,

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for years, and you're still only bronze...

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Stop.

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Get help.

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For my friends who aren't gamers,

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I always tell them, you just haven't found the right game yet.

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For me, video games fulfilled my desire to see narratives,

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stories, and cultures come to life,

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to see artwork and animation and technology come together to make beautiful landscapes or character design,

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and my favorite original soundtracks of all time come from video games.

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So immersing myself in these worlds,

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both old and new again,

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has been so so so fun.

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I replayed Unpacking recently.

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One of my favorites from last year is Zenba.

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It's a puzzle cooking game and centers on Tamil cuisine, so Indian cooking.

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The colors and the story are so rich,

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which as you've learned by this video,

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I'm a sucker for some multi-generational immigrant stories.

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I also briefly talked about a short hike in my last video.

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I adored the dialogue and the art style,

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and I especially fell in love with the music.

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I think it's my dream one day to actually work in video games,

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whether it's on the marketing side

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or maybe one day getting certification or a degree where I can develop games

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or animate them because it's just a career path I never thought of until I got to college

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and I started playing games again.

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I'm also a big Nintendo girly.

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Why did I do that?

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Why did I do that?

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Like everyone else, I've been grinding through Tears of the Kingdom,

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but I'm not even close to being done yet.

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I have not even fully taken advantage of all the Zonai devices because there's three layers in this world,

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which I don't even know how they created this game.

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I replayed Florence.

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I think Florence is actually the perfect game for anyone watching this video because one,

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it's multi-platform, so you can probably get it on whatever device or console you have.

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And it's about adulthood and growing up and longing for your childhood dreams and ambitions,

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but getting sucked into the vacuum of corporate life

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and needing to scale that letter and make money and make your mom proud.

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The story is about Florence as she returns to her artistic endeavors and also falls in love.

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The gameplay experience itself is wonderful.

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Colors, the art style, once again the music.

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There is a central part of the soundtrack that includes the cello and oh I love the cello.

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Like why did my parents not force me to learn the cello when I was a kid?

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Like ahhh.

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I've also been returning to Brilliant Diamond,

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which I played a lot with my friend Lauren.

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As much as I love the remake of Brilliant Diamond for the Switch,

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nothing beats the original.

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I have no idea where my pink DS Lite from childhood is,

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but I picked up this 3DS on eBay a couple years back.

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Oh my gosh.

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Wait, how do I do selfie mode?

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Say cheese, y'all.

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And I have the Ocarina of Time and Pokemon Diamond.

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A fond memory I have of Pokemon Diamond is my dad also had a DS when I started playing.

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And we actually bought that generation of Pokemon games together.

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So my dad played Pokemon Platinum.

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I played Pokemon Diamond on our respective DSs.

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And even though I am not BFFs with my dad,

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that is a very, very fond memory I have.

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We beat the Sudowoodles.

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Oh my gosh, you're so gamer cat.

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I hope this encourages you to venture out this new year or return to things that you may miss.

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Comment down below if there is a hobby you're looking to bring back or continue.

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Thank you again to Skillshare for partnering with me.

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Be sure to check out the exclusive offer I have down below in the description box.

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And that's the end of this video.

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I love you all so much.

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I'll see you in the next one.

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Bye bye!

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