Tell us about your self projects

One day, if I won the lottery that I don't do, I'd have a house with a library, I'd have enough money to be able to fill the shelves too, I think there'd be a lot of happy book sellers.

Same here. I’m far not enough social to do any volunteering. I write sci fi stories and also draw pictures for them. There was about time travel 500 years to the future and then back. There was cataclysm and aliens actively helping save humanity. Now it’s a girl with vast inner world but suffering in the outside world (like me) and she has encounters with ETs in her dreams, in other realms. She sees much more than in our realm. They tell her, that humans are the last currently existing civilisation in the Milky Way. Previous ones extincted themselves with their ego and greed. The aliens ask her to not engage with anyone, who hates and they inform her that it’s the last hope in our species to survive and become interplanetary. To survive and populate the galaxy again. She would see wonderful planets and discuss with them a possibility of living there. Then she will ask aliens to let her stay with them, because she is tired of this world. They inform her, she can’t stay right now, they  promise her they are always with her, but not always visible, taking care of her and supporting her mission. They also let her know, that she will finally have a good relationship with a human being. She will meet a man, who writes with fork in the air while eating. Exactly like her. (Like me).

My kids have left home (fairly recently), but we are still cluttered with their books, I need the shelf space for mine!

Wow Martin, Go You, I would love that amount of money to spend on books, although I'd have to have a lot more bookshelves, lol.

I am not a 'joiner', and find social interactions draining. Volunteering is not something I would consider. When I worked full time, my 'social batteries' were fully drained by being sociable at work. My projects are, therefore, solitary. In the mid 2000s I had a spate of writing historical articles online and for print journals, one of which won an international prize (including $450.00s worth of books on my subject). I have written 39 new articles on Wikipedia and rewritten and expanded very many more. 

At work I had many research projects over the years, most of which resulted in publications.

So many subjects are being closed or down graded and I find it really sad and worrying for the future. University isn't about getting skills for a job, it's not an apprenticeship, obviously the skills you gain transfer tot he world of work. The last government really attacked te humanities, seeing no value in them because not enough people got a job in their field of study at the end of their degree. At a time when public interest seems to be growing in humanities, universities are being forced to close courses

Thank you both for sharing. I went to university at 22 and a few difficult years and decided to study a BA in Religious Studies Major and Media Communications minor. At the time I took my course I wanted to be a religious studies broadcaster.  In the last year I changed the name of my degree to Liberal Arts basically as I had enough modules fitting it but still that Major/Minor field stayed and my dissertation was on religious studies. I loved my time studying and had some great lecturers. Health cost me a bit of the experience and I travelled from home to go to uni and not live long term in residence apart really for doing exams I could rent somewhere and stay close to uni.

I was looking yesterday and a lot of the interesting courses in religion to me are gone. Mine was free. Now you have to pay nearly £30K to study for 3 years and people are looking may be for a definte job at the end. It is like a blessing I could go and do something of my interest for free or next to nothing. It is still a great subject to study religion but like less schools are looking for RE teachers and the field is narrowing but there are still jobs there you can go and jobs it would be acceptable to use also.

May be my next voluntary job which is a hospital chaplain volunteer/pastroal visitior will become a project interest of some sort and my all time interests will remain. I read your post The CatWoman on pagans Versus Christians to see if I had any input but didn't.

I have done an enjoyable summer course at the Mary Ward Centre in one of my interests which was really cheap in London and may be taking a look at for some.

I went to university at the age of 42 and studied Medaeval History, just because I'd always wanted too, it was great, I loved it and wish I could go back.

Those are great projects - it sounds like you really gained a sense of achievement and that you helped people with your first one, had great fun with the second and fulfilment from the third. So very well done!

I'm retired now but worked for the majority of my adult years, although some of it was part time, so I haven't always had the energy to do projects. But I have managed some. Actually, the first one started when I was a girl. Here are 3 of mine:

At the age of 12 I taught myself to play guitar and I used to play it and sing for the neighbourhood kids.

From the age of 30-35 I had a job as a part-time special needs teaching assistant in a Primary school. My project there was designing and making educational board games - word ones to help with reading & spelling, and a shopping game to help with understanding money.

In my late 40s I decided to do some study with the Open University. I gained a diploma in social sciences, which I really enjoyed. It wasn't work related (I was working in accounts at the time) - I did it for the joy of learning.