Written by Mahliqa Ali
Photography by Ryan Lee
The academic pressures of LSE can often feel as though between lectures, deadlines, and late-night library sessions, there is not enough time to engage in hobbies or extracurricular activities. Nevertheless, many students carve out pockets of time outside their studies to pursue hobbies, whether to destress, upskill, or connect with people. Ultimately, university is not only about degree-related intellectual growth but also creative exploration, socialising, and personal development. How, then, are LSE students making use of this unique environment where you can try almost anything?
Liza, a third-year Social Anthropology student, took up commercial dance through LSESU’s Dance Society. “I’ve wanted to learn how to be good at dancing for many years, but I never felt comfortable enough to try. In my final year, I decided it’s now or never. The classes offered such an easy opportunity – student-friendly prices, insanely good quality teaching, and conveniently located right on campus,’’ she says.
Liza emphasises how extracurricular activities help to maintain a work-life balance within such an academically challenging university.
“LSE is a very intense academic institution, a lot is expected of us and we expect a lot from ourselves. Everyone is working so hard and a lot of people are grinding, grinding, grinding in the library all day. I personally can’t see myself doing it that way. I need breaks, I need to move. I’m a strong advocate for not grinding yourself into the ground. Doing things like dance have helped me achieve that balance,’’ observes Liza.
Momina, a third-year Law student, has tried a vast range of extracurricular activities, both at LSE and beyond. She joined the university-based Crafts Society and Mahjong, and tried ceramics and padel off-campus.
Momina highlights that in first year, she focused solely on academics. “But it’s not good for you to always be only focusing on education and not take out time for yourself. In second year, I realised I need to take at least an hour or two each week to do something I enjoy, and in my third year, I decided to compartmentalise my time so that one third of it will be spent on doing things that I like,’’ explains Momina.
“I think a lot of us, especially at LSE, feel really guilty when we take time off. I don’t know what it is, but it’s so universal. I think accepting that it’s fine to not be working all the time is a major part of it,’’ she adds.
Both Liza and Momina highlight aspects of self-development their hobbies nurture which are not necessarily linked to their degrees. Liza explains, “I’ve become much more liberated, free, and confident in myself and my body. Being able to do an activity once a week which has nothing to do with my career or education is pure joy. It’s showed me how important how it is to do activities which energise you from within and bring you pleasure.’’
Liza further notes that many of us at LSE pressure ourselves to always excel academically, and scrutinise ourselves to be better in a way that extends to all other areas of life. In this light, trying new things can significantly help with developing the habit of positive self-talk.
Liza recalls that going into her first dance class, she “tried to be as non-judgmental [towards herself] as possible. I told myself I’m doing this for myself, I’m learning, I may not get it right the first time but that’s okay because I’m here to have fun.’’
For Momina, hobbies offer intellectual stimulation beyond her degree. “These activities are a driving force for your brain. I have felt that I generally perform better in my education when I’m doing these extracurricular activities – they’re brain nourishment. Mahjong is especially good for engaging your brain,’’ expresses Momina.
While hobbies can offer a respite from the world of academia and careers, they also offer an opportunity to explore what you might like to do in the future, especially if you would like to explore creative industries while studying at a highly corporate, career-oriented university.
Momina acknowledges that her hobbies do not technically relate to her career as a law student, but have broadened her perspective. ‘’I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but if I were to go into a corporate commercial law job, then these hobbies don’t really relate.’’
“I think from a mental wellbeing perspective this is a good thing because I’m keeping that sort of strict divide between what I enjoy and what I would be doing for work. But you can also discover what you might like to do as a career through hobbies. For example, I always ruled out doing something creative, but I’ve been going to art exhibitions and art auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s since first year. It was through these that I realised this is a whole industry of careers I could venture into. At LSE, it’s easy to pigeonhole yourself into very limited careers like finance, consultancy, law, but we forget there’s so much more out there,’’ Momina reflects.
Ryan, a General Course student and Photography Editor at The Beaver, got into photography when his dad gave him one of his old film cameras in 2021. He continued nurturing his passion at his home university, Georgetown in Washington DC, taking a photography module and taking pictures for their student paper. While he doesn’t plan to pursue photography as a career, he acknowledges its potential value.
“I still don’t know what my career direction is, but if I got a job offer from somewhere like National Geographic, I would totally do it. The nature of what I study is Politics, and the only point where it would overlap is photojournalism or if I wanted to photograph congress or parliament or something like that, but I don’t see myself going in that direction,’’ he says.
For Ryan, the benefits of photography are largely unrelated to his career aims. “Photography is something that gets my mind off things. Most of what I do is just walking around and taking pictures. I used to be a very shy person so I wouldn’t do things by myself, and I’m an introvert at heart, so I tend to feel kind of awkward when I’m alone. Having a camera makes it a lot easier because it’s kind of like a friend I can take with me.’’
Despite the many social, upskilling, and leisure benefits to hobbies, hobbies aren’t always accessible due to financial and time constraints. Liza appreciates that “the Dance Society membership is very accessible compared to how much you’d generally have to pay for dance classes in London. A yearly membership is around £30, and each class credit comes out to around £5. This is comparatively more affordable than professional dance studios, but with the same quality of teaching.’’
Momina also praises the accessibility, comparing her on-campus hobbies to the off-campus ones. She notes that Crafts Society, which she joined mainly to attend crochet lessons, has cheap membership which includes all supplies and teaching.
Comparatively, her experience of playing padel outside LSE revealed how much campus societies facilitate pursuing an activity. “There’s a huge benefit to trying things through societies because most memberships are a standard price of £1.50 to £4, and the events after that are mainly free. Playing padel was really expensive because I had to buy the equipment myself, and I had to travel far to access the courts.’’
Ryan noted that “there is a lot of constraint on getting involved with photography, especially at LSE. At my home institution, I could rent out cameras from the library, which I did because there was the photography course I had to do coursework for. Contrastingly, there aren’t any photography modules at LSE and I don’t believe you can rent out cameras from the library. The LSESU Photography Club is defunct at the moment.”
He adds, “LSE is a very economics and political science focused university, so it makes sense there aren’t creative departments. It’s understandable from an institutional perspective, but from a hobbies standpoint, those are definitely restrictions. The financial cost is a barrier as well, cameras can be hugely expensive.’’
Despite these restrictions, Ryan recommends not letting the financial cost deter people from trying photography. “There are plenty of entry level cameras that are pretty good and not too expensive.’’
The vast range of potential hobbies offered by LSESU societies provides students with a unique opportunity to try their hand at almost anything, in a generally affordable, low-stakes and light-hearted environment. In Liza’s words, “Ultimately we’re only here for three years, and time really flies. Even though student life is so busy, we have deadlines, academics, part-time jobs, ultimately it’s our late teens and early twenties when we are supposedly most energetic, and it’s a very good opportunity to try new things.’’
