Origami Week #1
I started learning origami this week.
7/13/2024 - 7/20/2024
Why am I learning origami?
A lot of reasons, but long story short (or TLDR depending on what generation you belong to): I want to pursue a non-musical hobby that pushes me out of my comfort zone by forcing me to learn something completely new.
To be blunt, I know that my musical background will give me a leg up when learning anything related to music. I feel the need to break away from that comfort and travel into unknown terrain - even if it’s “just” folding paper.
If you are curious about some more specific reasons why I chose origami compared to another art form, I’ll add 10 to the end of this post.
So, let’s see the progress from week 1:
I spent the first day of the week looking up the basics of origami and practicing more complex folds (pocket and hood folds). Every day for the rest of the week, I spent about half an hour to an hour every day learning how to make three beginner-level origami folds: a cat, a dog, and a flower (stem+blossom). Here’s a time lapse of me making all three in a row from memory earlier today.
Feel free to slow down the video if it’s too fast (click on the gear icon in the lower right corner and change video speed)
In case you wanted a closer look at what I made, here are pictures of all three creations side-by-side.
Sidenote: I said I was learning how to fold, and that by no means makes me a talented drawing artist… I’m also working on my drawing skills to compliment the origami.
Three origami folds I learned to make from memory this week: cat (top left), dog (bottom left), and flower (right)
That’s what I accomplished from doing origami for a little bit each day for a week! It’s already providing me with several of the benefits I anticipated, and I’m looking forward to doing more folding next week!
And as promised, here are some more reasons why I landed on origami specifically as opposed to another art form:
It’s absolutely incredible - the fact that you can make so many things out of one piece of paper is incredible
It teaches me patience
It allows me to meditate, reflect, and take my mind off of other things
It is giftable and I can foresee myself giving these to people randomly to cheer them up
It’s cheap (important as a broke medical student)
It’s easy to start
I’m the kind of person who nervously ticks (biting fingernails, nagging at my phone case, etc.) so I want to learn something that I can always be doing to calm me down
It can take up as little or as much time as I can afford (important as a medical student)
I can tangibly track my progress
It’s a neat party trick and something I can teach someone to do in less than 5 minutes
