# How has your involvement in the hobby changed?



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

Hi all, 
I started this hobby back in middle school and was active throughout most of high school. Now fast forward a few graduations later I'm in a different stage of my life and am reflecting on how the hobby has definitely played a large role in my life. I don't have the time to maintain any tanks nowadays and it's something I hope I will be able to do in the future (good thing I have an ungodly amount of equipment sitting in my fish room so that the start up cost will be minimal ), but I went from 5-7 tanks to now only having emersed plant setups. For now, just growing plants emersed fits my interest levels and requires very little work. I enjoy being able to do maintenance on my setups every few weeks or months and seeing the progress. 

I'm recently back on the forums and happy to see familiar usernames and new ones alike and that the community is still going (albeit forum participation seems to be down across the board). I'm curious to hear how others involvement in the hobby have changed over the years.


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