Magic, mixed martial arts, video games, basketball, and family history are five things that students of BYU–Hawaii are passionate about and love to do. Students say their hobbies enable them to express their creativity, discipline their minds, and make meaningful connections with others.
Family history
Jensen Dye, a sophomore from Utah majoring in Hawaiian studies, said one thing he’s passionate about right now is doing genealogy. Dye said he knows the people on the other side rejoice when someone does their temple work, but he believes they rejoice even more when someone takes the time to learn something about them.
He said he likes to imagine what his reunion with his family will be like. “When I get there I could say, ‘oh! I learned this little fact about you–you loved playing checkers. Why don’t we play checkers some time?’ I want to get to know them and be their friend.
“Because are they really family if you don’t know who they are?” Dye asked. “It’s the relationship that defines family for me.”
He said, “I think it’s important to understand where you come from and also know who the people who went before you are.”
Dye said he wants to know the stories of his ancestors because it makes doing their temple work more meaningful. “If you don’t know who they are personally it makes you wonder, ‘Who is this person and why am I doing their work?’ I think it enhances the experience to know the person you’re serving.”
Basketball
Jefferey McFarland, a sophomore from California double majoring in biomedicine and applied mathematics, said it’s hard to put everything he loves about basketball into one sentence. “There are so many things that go into basketball, but my favorite thing is the mentality that it takes. You think about making a shot, over and over again… it takes a lot of mental power.”
He said when he’s shooting hoops there are often outside voices distracting him. “Say I make three shots in a row, I start getting super confident or boastful like ‘hey, check me out,’ or I start thinking, ‘is anybody else watching me? Where are all the cute girls?’”
McFarland said being able to block out those distractions helps him to focus more on what he’s feeling inside, which helps him “feel the shot” and make more baskets. “It’s a challenge to control my thoughts, and focus them, but the challenge in doing it is kind of fun.
“I hope to be the next Steph Curry… I’m not a Golden State Warriors fan, but [Curry] talks about being mentally strong. There are always going to be people trying to get into your head. But you just have to be focused and determined.”
McFarland said he handles the disappointment of not making a basket by remembering what it feels like when he does. “I remember playing basketball in sixth grade with these two eighth graders and they beat my friend and I like forty-five to zero,” he recounted with a laugh. “In the beginning, I wasn’t good. But it’s the hope of making a basket that keeps you going. When you actually make it, you’re like, ‘hey, I did it… if I did it in the past, I can do it again.’
“You just keep shooting and having fun with it.”
Magic
Ephraim Insigne, a senior from the Philippines majoring in accounting, said he’s passionate about reading novels. He said he’s lost count of how many books he’s read but three years ago it was well over 100. “I’m also very passionate about gaming. There are a lot of good stories in games. I mostly play them because of the storyline, which goes along with why I read books.”
Insigne said he enjoys fantasy novels the most. He said [The] Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Prydain are just a few of his favorite stories. “And that goes along with the type of video games I enjoy, like Legend of Zelda and Pokemon. Fantasy brings magic… in almost every fantasy story there’s an element of magic. Magic is what draws me to stories.”
Insigne said it was the magic that made him fall in love with Harry Potter. “I kept thinking, ‘Man, if I had magic I could do the dishes with a flick of the wrist. Swish and flick they’re done!’
“The appeal of magic is that it gives you power over something you normally don’t in the real world, and that’s what attracts me the most. The idea of having power to break the set rules that we have in this world is awesome.”
Alexis Brown, a senior from Arizona majoring in psychology, also said she loves magic. She said it is one of the reasons she plays games like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.
“I play Dungeons & Dragons a lot with my friends on campus,” she said, grabbing her sketchbook. She started flipping through the pages, showing off the different characters she’s created for the popular tabletop role-playing games. She said making up characters and their elaborate backstories for campaigns is one of her favorite parts.
One of Brown’s characters is Arara Mellerelel, “a wizard-elf with an anthropologist background,” and another character she’s created is Roger Davies, “a knowledge cleric… with a city-watch investigator background,” who Brown described as an atypical, dorky “dad dwarf.”
“I really like D&D because it allows me to play characters and make up my own stories… there’s not a story out there about a dwarf dad character, you know? That’s his core, central thing: he’s a dad, he tells bad dad jokes,” Brown said, laughing as she showed off the doodle she’s created of Roger Davies, a stocky dwarf with a dad bod, bushy beard, man bun, and glasses.
Brown said it’s fun to do different character voices. Clearing her throat, she lowered it dramatically to demonstrate how she portrays Roger Davies, “‘Alright, it’s time to go to bed, we gotta tuck you in and make sure you’re okay… don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you.’ Or, you can be a character that’s like, ‘Oh, I’m dark and edgy and everybody’s died in my family.’ Or you could be like, ‘I’m a princess and everybody loves me but there’s a war going on that I need to stop.’ You can literally be anything… except a dragon. You can be a dragonborn, like dragon-people, but not a dragon, that’s a completely different thing.
“I also enjoy playing with my friends and interacting with the characters they’ve made because we all put bits and pieces of ourselves into them,” Brown said. “There are entire universes created through the campaigns that you just don’t find in games like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Assassin’s Creed…’ It involves magic, and I love magic.”
Brown said her favorite characters to make are bards. “I really love bards because they’re musical. They’re also the more goofy characters… they’re charismatic and acrobatic… they also tend to be the most flirtatious and persuasive. There’s just so much I love about D&D!”
Mixed martial arts
Ivan Tang, a sophomore from Hong Kong majoring in computer science, has been practicing mixed martial arts since he was in his early teens. “I’m still learning Brazilian jiu jitsu, which is very popular in MMA systems. It involves a lot of grappling on the ground. I practice Wing Chun, kung fu, taekwondo, judo, and a little bit of Muay Thai and boxing.”
Tang said as a kid he was a kung fu movie fan, but that was it. He said he didn’t want to exercise a lot and he just wanted to live a lazy life. “However I had a turning point around middle school. You know, in every culture we find bullying. I was tired of watching it happen and being a victim. I felt like I was weak and couldn’t do anything about it. I felt like I should have the ability to protect myself and those around me, which is why I started to really get into martial arts.”
Tang said in the beginning, when he was a teenager, he just wanted to win fights. “But lately I’ve learned, especially with Chinese martial arts, the spirit of it isn’t to destroy everything. It’s to discipline yourself and clear your mind.
“The more I get into martial arts, the more I realize how big it is. It’s helped me, along with the restored gospel, to humble myself. It’s become a lifelong habit. It’s part of my life and has helped me complete myself.”
Tang said he’s preparing himself to compete in a Brazilian jiu jitsu competition in Hawaii this coming April. “I still need to take time and practice. When I have free time, I’d rather be doing my hobby than waste it playing on my phone.”
Writer: Emi Wainwright
