When It's Time to Rethink a Hobby

Original drawings by Trevor Pacelli

By Trevor Pacelli
The world of Pokémon has long been a favorite of both kids and adults on the autism spectrum, like me. I joined the Pokémon fandom at ten years old, my first game being Pokémon Ruby on the Gameboy Advance SP. Although I drifted away from the games once I hit adulthood, I still couldn’t help but keep up with the franchise. Eventually, I felt the urge to play the games again. In 2021, I bought a Nintendo Switch, and became the proud owner of four games: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond, Pokémon Legends Arceus, Pokémon Shield, and Pokémon Scarlet. While I admit the games’ quality is lackluster, and there are problems with disability friendliness, the chill environments of these Pokémon worlds with the diverse 1,000+ Pokémon delight me as much as when I was twelve. But unlike back then, I got sucked into a component of Pokémon that in turn sucked out what originally drew me to the franchise: competitive battles.​

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Yes, a whole subculture of Pokémon fans is all about competitive battles. I tried entering the scene for something "fun" to do and quickly found I could not do so using my favorite Pokémon. I did a lot of research on how to build the right team and build them in-game (which always took forever). I spent every day on an online battle simulator (Showdown!) to test out teams I made, learning through trial and error why my strategies weren’t working. Whenever I thought I found a good team, losing enough times made me realize the team's blind spots, requiring building a new team from scratch. I was thrown into many gamer-rage fits from the constant losses, which affected my general happiness throughout the day. In addition, the sweat, blood, and tears shed from my practice never helped me win.
But for quite a while, I thought I was improving. So, I took a three-day trip to Portland for a Pokémon video game championship. I wasn’t comfortable enough to be in the official tournament, but I went as a spectator who partook in battles on the side.
The trip started off with a minor car accident that caused quite a bit of stress for me, and it didn’t get much better from there. On day one at the Portland Convention Center, I did only one battle, which I lost easily. On day two, the official competitive battles I could watch were few and far between, with most of my time spent waiting until the next battle to either watch or partake in. I had one win, but then four straight hard losses. By that final loss, I had had enough. I didn’t go back to the convention center, but did some tourist things around Portland that evening and the next day before going home. So, overall, my tournament experience was much less than I had hoped for.
Portland set the first ripple of an important lesson I had to learn: Sometimes, you must accept that no matter how hard you practice, you will never be good at a certain hobby. That’s exactly what I’m finding with my incapacity to stand a chance against other players. Even if I think I know the strategy of whomever I’m playing against, he throws a curveball at me, and I don’t have the mental processing speed to readjust my plan under pressure. So, I have learned that it’s best to give up on Pokémon battles and stick to the hobbies I enjoy and others have told me I’m good at, like cooking, photography, story writing, and drawing. The last of these is why I became a Pokémon fan in the first place. Because I love the fun Pokémon designs, it inspired me to draw my own Pokémon creations over the years, which can be seen on my Instagram page, @Murro_Region. This is something I believe I should stick with since it gives me a sense of self-accomplishment.
This isn’t the first time I gave up a hobby. Here’s my blog post about when I decided to stop writing weekly movie reviews.
To decide whether it’s time for you to give up a hobby, ask yourself:

1. What do you think about the most in your downtime?
2. Have others said you’re good at the hobby, or not?
3. Has the hobby helped you form new healthy friendships?
4. What originally drew you to the hobby? A need to relax? A desire to become the best at it?
5. Has the hobby taken away the joy which drew you to it?
6. Does the hobby feel like an obsession or addiction?
7. Does the hobby waste your time?
8. Do you feel unhappy after the activity, or dread starting the activity?

I hope you find hobbies, interests and other activities that bring joy, wellbeing and accomplishment to your free time and add happiness to your life. Below is a sample of my original Pokémon drawings.​
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Trevor Pacelli is an adult author and illustrator on the autism spectrum.
Trevor’s Books | Trevor’s Instagram @Murro_Region