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That I understand. I have other hobbies that I enjoy, but its such things like gaming that adcoms may seemingly not find impressive unless I like professionally play. I'm an incoming freshmen so I was just really looking for ideas to try out to see what I would enjoy doing.
As of now, I basically play xbox, read, and the occasional diy project. I'm a boring person who doesn't have any sort of stress reliever so I'm trying to find a hobby that I can do and enjoy to handle the incoming stresses of college
Fencing is pretty cool. Sort of Star Wars-esque. But whittling is good, too.
I can see where this would really resonate with older adcomms. And most adcomms are "older" relative to applicants. Rocking Chair Yoga might go over well for the same reason.
I'd argue it's actually a great thing. Hobbies at any level but especially at a high level extensively develop many personal qualities. When you go to the doctor, you don't want to be seen by a robot; you want someone that can relate well to not only you but a majority of patients. Of course, I'm not saying that you can't relate without any hobbies etc but I'd bet people with passionate interests outside medicine will on the whole be much better at interacting with patients, if only from developing the social skills in a different arena. A champion fencer likely brings more than you think to the table: calm, collected yet quick decision making under huge pressure; stamina; interview skills at press conferences; empathy for an injured teammate or resilience from one's own injury before a national meet; etc. Of course, many people will say "But I bring all those too!" but the reality is that the difference in level of development of those qualities are often quite noticeable.
I know some doctors, and napping is apparently very important. Strategic napping in the on call room, but a shallow nap so that your pager will wake you up.
