I used to be lately requested to take part in a podcast. I declined.
It’s not that I’m too good for a podcast or any destructive sentiment. It’s simply that there are approach too many Black males out right here proper now with them hip-shooting scorching takes as a substitute of honing in on therapeutic.
Look, I get it. A homey simply needs to be heard. We would like our takes revered, our life tales understood, and our ache acknowledged. And in a world that continually silences us—on the job, in our households, within the broader social assemble—it is sensible that so many Black males have turned to no matter model of a mic they’ll discover, metaphorically or actually. That mic is likely to be an precise podcast, a string of social media posts, or simply all the time needing to be the loudest one on the cookout.
I imply, take a look at me. NewsOne has made me a multi-hundredaire for my voice.
However right here’s a wild concept: what if this summer season wasn’t about being heard? What if it had been about listening to your self?
2025 is the summer season of doing issues which might be for you. Issues that don’t require validation, likes, or viewers engagement. As a result of, fact be informed, you don’t want one more reason to elucidate your self to the world. You want one thing that feeds you. One thing egocentric in the very best approach.
We dwell in a time when hustle tradition is loud, algorithm-chasing is the norm, and each passion looks like it ought to finish in a merch line. However what if we rejected that? What if we mentioned no to the content material grind and sure to leisure? Not simply relaxation, however intentional, joyful, non-performative leisure? That’s the thesis. That’s the transfer.
So as a substitute of looking for a highlight, listed below are just a few homeboy hobbies that you just may wish to choose up this summer season. They don’t require followers or a platform — simply your time and your willingness to suck at one thing new.
Golf: The place Your Solely Competitor Is Gravity
You ever wish to take a six-hour stroll whereas often getting irrationally mad at a ball? Golf is for you. It’s not about being good. It’s about being away. From duties. From noise. From expectations. It’s six hours of considering you is likely to be Tiger Woods in 1997, solely to finish up trying like that Tiger Woods mugshot from 2019.
Give your self permission to be trash at it.
As a result of you may’t be a nasty worker, father, brother, AND golfer. Decide one. Golf has zero real-life penalties. If you find yourself within the sand lure or your ball disappears right into a pond, nobody’s calling HR. Essentially the most anybody will say is “robust break, bro,” and give you a Gatorade.
And actually, golf carts are simply tiny convertibles. You deserve a tiny convertible this summer season.
Biking: Cardio with a View
Put some air in these tires, clip in, and journey. It’s the closest factor to flying with out TSA. It’s simply you, the highway, and no matter playlist you’ve been which means to atone for. You possibly can journey by way of neighborhoods you by no means observed, get to know your self by way of the rhythm of the pedals, and possibly even be part of a Black biking membership that rolls deep like a leather-clad Wakandan peloton.
Biking forces you into presence. You possibly can’t doomscroll whereas dodging potholes. You’re in it, sweating it out, chasing the subsequent hill. And that sense of motion, of bodily ahead movement, is a superb metaphor for getting unstuck mentally.
Gardening: Development You Can Style
You wish to really feel like a god? Develop one thing. Tomatoes. Peppers. Herbs. Hell, develop a dandelion if it makes you’re feeling good. You’ll study endurance, humility, and the worth of nurturing one thing with out demanding instantaneous outcomes.
Gardening is a sluggish magic. It teaches you to close up and let nature deal with it. Water. Wait. Watch. When you want an existential flex, know that you just’re actually cultivating life from grime. And if somebody asks what you’re doing, simply say you’re “reclaiming ancestral relationships with the land.” Growth: nurturing and rebellious.
Additionally, there’s one thing deeply satisfying about strolling into your kitchen, grabbing a scotch bonnet you grew, and tossing it right into a pan such as you’re starring in your individual cooking present. The ancestors would approve.
Pickleball: Aggressive Cardio with Compliments
Pickleball is ping-pong’s larger, louder cousin with a petty streak. It’s low impression, excessive reward, and comes with an computerized neighborhood of parents who’re simply on the market making an attempt to have a great time and get some steps in.
It’s the right mixture of “I’m doing cardio” and “I’m going to argue over a line name prefer it’s Wimbledon.” And since it’s new to lots of people and there’s no league to aspire to hitch, nobody expects you to be knowledgeable. You possibly can fumble your serve, miss the ball solely, and nonetheless get dap after the match since you had been on the market doing you.
And doing you is the entire level.
Drone Flying: Excessive Tech, Low Stakes
You ever wish to really feel like a child and a Bond villain on the identical time? Fly a drone. There’s no ethical to this one, it’s simply enjoyable. Get out in nature, take some cool aerial footage, and faux such as you’re scouting areas in your subsequent heist or music video.
Pleasure doesn’t want a justification. You possibly can fly the factor, crash it right into a tree, chortle, and go house. No one’s grading you. No one’s retweeting it. It’s simply you and the sky.
Plus, when you actually wish to flex, add your finest drone footage to a Google Drive and ship it to your guys like, “Flying over yo’ mother’s home now!”
The Larger Concept: Reclaiming Pleasure With out Monetizing It
These hobbies are greater than distractions. They’re reclamation instruments. They’re about flipping the script on what it means to be a Black man in a hyper-visible, hyper-judged, performative world.
We’ve been informed our worth lies in our output; our labor, our takes, our presence, our safety. And but, this summer season is asking us to cease producing and begin being.
You don’t must monetize your therapeutic. You don’t must model your bliss. What you want is house to discover who you’re when nobody else is watching. To mess up, to strive once more, to not be nice at one thing however nonetheless find it irresistible anyway.
As a result of for Black males, there’s a sacredness in freedom. Freedom from judgment. Freedom from accountability, even when just for just a few hours. Freedom from all the time needing to make it make sense.
Think about waking up on a Saturday, to not do a factor for another person, however to go to Residence Depot and get a brand new trowel. Only for you. As a result of your basil is trying promising. Or waking up early for a solo journey across the lake with Ghotstface in your headphones and nobody asking what you’re occupied with.
That’s not corny. That’s revolutionary.
That is the way you reclaim your time. That is the way you middle your pleasure. That is the way you cease being the podcast—the limitless stream of ideas and commentary for public consumption—and begin being the listener. Of your physique. Your peace. Your needs. Your boredom.
You’ve earned the correct to be joyfully mediocre. Not every part needs to be a flex. Not every part needs to be content material. A few of it could possibly simply be for you.
And when you’re nonetheless tempted to start out a podcast this summer season, simply report your self describing your backyard to a good friend over the cellphone. That’s the actual content material. That’s the actual mic drop.
So right here’s to the summer season of self. The summer season of latest hobbies, earned peace, intentional selfishness, and development with no strain. As a result of the one voice it’s essential to hear proper now could be your individual, telling you: you’re allowed to simply be.
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