On being happy alone

I came across an untranslated word today while I was reading. The word was shumi, and the way it was described was as "something that makes you happy when you're alone". So I looked it up on Google, and that produced the definition of "hobby".

I'm kind of wondering now if that translation is oversimplifying things. I mean, I enjoy writing, and I enjoy drawing, but I wouldn't call it something that makes me happy. It's more like I have a compulsion to write and to draw sometimes, and I find it relaxing.

So then what makes me happy when I am alone? I feel I ought to exclude the Internet, because it's an interaction of sorts, and it's not like being entirely alone. TV is the same way--you're watching real people, even if they're just actors.

Reading, on the other hand, makes me unashamedly happy. I like sitting down in an abandoned corner with a book and a mug of tea for a few hours.

...It's pretty sad, but that's about the only thing I can come up with. Perhaps that's good enough.

My advice: think about what makes you happy, then take a day where you blow off college stuff and just do that. College is not worth constant misery (just almost-constant misery).