Hi,
My name is Ian and I am the founder of millennialhobbies.com.
Throughout my 20s I got so caught up in careers, jobs, volunteering in my community, getting married, getting cats and more, but I found myself no longer pursuing passion projects in my life. That is the main reason I decided to start this website as it keeps me accountable for learning new things, rediscovering hobbies and sharing information about the things I am passionate about.
From as early as I can remember, probably 4 or 5 years old, I was introduced to the great outdoors by my father who is an obsessive outdoorsman and bird hunter. He introduced me to duck hunting years before I could ever hold, let alone shoot, a shotgun and I’d tag along out to the duck blind just to build forts out of sticks and grass and learned to enjoy wilderness. I grew up in Wisconsin but lived most of my life near and around Seattle Washington. Hiking & camping were a Spring and Summer staple for me as a kid and I was lucky to be able to go on many day hikes all around the Pacific Northwest growing up. In my teenage years I got into backpacking & rucking, but also into snowboarding, mountain biking & survival hobbies.
In addition to my love of the outdoors I started playing guitar when I was 13 and became the local busker (street performing) at the Des Moines farmers market, as well as playing for small crowds by the Space Needle & Key Arena every chance I could. I was in a few bands that went nowhere fast but it was a great time in my life. I learned music production & recording in my room and had a ton of fun with that. Getting back into music & recording probably isn’t on my to-do list for another year or so but I definitely intend to. Later on I attended Highline Community College on the border of Des Moines & Federal Way in Washington and graduated with a 3.8 GPA with an Associate of Arts degree in Music and went on to teaching guitar for quite some time while working at a local music lessons company as their book keeper.
My close friends and family can all attest that I am a bit of an odd duck and my obsession with prepping at a young age was viewed with, uh, “that’s nice dear but kinda a weird hobby” type remarks. When December 20th, 2012 rolled around I remember packing up my go-bags, loading a variety of bandoliers with 12-gauge slugs and buckshot, sharpening a machete and bushcraft knife I had and hunkering down to watch the clock roll to the end of the Mayan Calendar. This was all just in case of course…
A miracle occurred in 2014 when I met the love of my life (and now wife) and we started dating long distance. What she sees in me I am still trying to figure out but as they say, count your blessings. I moved to Nor Cal in late 2015 and have been there since.
The bottom line is, when it comes to being a millennial and having a slew of different hobbies over my past 20+ years, I figured Millennial Hobbies would be an apropos title for this hobbyist website. With the advance of the internet, social media, AI and all of the crazy stuff going on over the past 5 years, as well as how bleak the future looks, I wanted to be able to share all of my experience with either people younger than me or those interested in these same hobbies. I came to the realization that life moves on and you can either make the most of it, learn and share your experiences or just keep it all inside and let time continue to pass. I hope what I share here grows from spreading knowledge & experiences to one day a community of likeminded individuals. I don’t think the internet or web 2.0 is going away any time soon (unless we all get nuked or EMP’d) so this will be my little place in history to plant my roots online.
In the present I am a digital marketer by career and in order to make a little money on the side I do have some listical affiliate articles and ads on my blog posts. I hope they aren’t too intrusive to you, the (hopefully) readers of this website. It seems like with inflation and the cost of goods constantly rising if you don’t have a side hustle or content creation business on the side it’s easy to fall behind. If you want to support me & you enjoy your time here at millennialhobbies.com feel free to pick up some hiking or survival gear from any of my links and at no additional cost to you, I get a few bucks or cents here and there.
If you are also a hobby blogger or affiliate marketer and would like to guest post I am more than open to exchanges to keep all of us growing our presence online.
Rather than looking at YOLO as an excuse to do stupid things, I am trying to take to heart in the present that indeed we only live one life and that time is best spent focusing on the things & people you love.
Thank you for reading and I hope some of the resources & knowledge on this website aids you in some shape or form.
Sincerely,
Ian Freng-Meeteer
Founder
Millennialhobbies.com
