Sounds like you’re getting to much of a good thing? [:-^]
Given that you seem to have had an interest in trains before you started working for a railroad, is that what lead you go to work for the railroad?
That, and I would have had to go to grad school for any hope of a job when I graduated college. At the time, the railroad was hiring like crazy, so I decided “what the hell”. It may have been my only chance to hire on, and at least this way I wouldn’t wonder about it later.
I don’t regret my newish hobbies (I always ‘doodled’ in school, but animation/anime was a new one), and that was not my intent in this thread. I was just curious if anyone else got to discover new hobbies when they got a job here. T’is all.
For me, I spend so much time outside at work (being the yard/local bird I am) that I really don’t have that much motivation to go outside when I’m off.
I’ve always kinda envied people who take an interest in one thing and stick with it (and in a way I don’t envy them), but my interests seem to wander. As far back as I can remember, it was, “What do you want for Christmas?” “Electric train.” In my teens I migrated to an interest in electronics, which evolved into 33 years as an electronic technician during which time I took little interest in electronics outside of work. In my 20’s, I was obsessed with cars (overhauling engines, carbureters, bodywork). In my thirties it was sailing (Thanks Eric97123, for that picture–what a rush!). I even lived on my 28-ft sailboat for over five years. Later, I got interested in the New Orleans streetcar rennovation project and migrated from that back to trains. Off and on I was also interested in photography, including quite a bit of darkroom work, though I never took much interest in photographing trains or boats. Lately, the boss keeps me busy working on rennovating the house, and working in the yard.
Anyway, after all this rambling, I think it’s good to be interested in different things outside of work. You can get saturated with something you do every day, and begin to think you hate it, but you’d really miss it if you left it. There were days when the only thing that kept me going was telling myself, “Well, I won’t be in this job much longer”, but I was really depressed for a while when I retired.