I'VE had many hobbies in my life, but they all have one thing in common. They're time-consuming and expensive. Increasingly so, in fact. Agony and ecstasy
of collectingCollecting baseball cards was my first hobby. When I was about 7, I was on a baseball team, the Pirates. We were a pretty good team and the "in" thing to do then was to collect baseball cards and chew as much gum as possible. Not wanting to be left out, I started to use all my spare money on the little pieces of cardboard.
I would spend all my money at Ryan's, a card store across from Aina Haina School where we played our games. My teammates and I would be covered in dirt from a recently completed game as we proceeded to select the pack which we believed contained "the magic card." This card -- a Jose Canseco -- could be hidden in any pack and promised its finder a fruitful life.
But alas, nobody ever selected the right one and I ended up with a lot of grade-D baseball players' faces bonded to 3-by-5-inch pieces of cardboard.
My mom finally convinced me that spending $8 a week on what amounted to worthless pieces of cardboard was a lost cause. Now, my old cards are stashed somewhere at my grandma's house, forgotten and collecting dust.
My second major hobby was model rockets. This was yet another interest sparked by a baseball friend of mine. About four years ago my friend Andrew introduced me to these contraptions. The concept was amazing; build and fire a near weightless cardboard tube thousands of feet into the air.
Hurtling straight toward the heavens at hundreds of miles per hour, these rockets of his amazed me. Before I knew what happened, I was in Wellers Hobbycraft spending nearly a hundred dollars on my first rocket, its launching pad and igniter.
My life became dedicated to the construction and purchase of more rockets and stronger engines. The engines cost around $1.50 each and I used one or sometimes two per launch. My school work began to suffer, but nothing mattered to me except perfecting the paint on my rockets and keeping the fins absolutely straight and symmetrical.
Eventually, my interest waned as other things became more important, such as girls and going out.
MY most recent money-sucking hobby is radio-controlled cars. These are not your department store $59.99 cars. These cars are built for speed, handling, speed, durability and, did I mention, SPEED?
A recent TV show sparked my interest and the car I got had to be the best. I had to get the Associated Dual Sport Racer kit, not the economical "sport" kit, which lacked goodies such as universal drive shafts instead of the plain old "dog bones." Another "must have" was the bearings, which cut down on drag, but fire up the price. Finally, I had to get the teflon-coated Team Shocks. What's an extra $100 when you're getting the works?
As usual, I had no money, so I did what every teen does. I went into debt with my mother. The car cost me $450, and like a real car, has constant needs. I have to replace the brushes on the motor every 10 times I run it, and the tires need to be replaced constantly. These expenses add up.
Although I haven't raced my radio-controlled car yet, I'm sure I will, and it is then that I will fully realize why I spent this much money on it. My theory, "speed equals joy!" may someday lead to a future hobby: racing real cars!
Despite the cost of my hobbies, they are what keep me sane. Whenever something bothered me, I could always arrange my baseball cards or build a rocket.
These days, I can tweak my car to perfection. It is all the "extras" that make this so enjoyable. I can always leave reality behind and immerse myself in my car. It is what sustains me, that is, until something with a bigger price tag and more "goodies" comes along.
Steven Zane will be a senior at
Kaiser High School in the fall.Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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