Griff Urang, a sophomore at NWA, once had a unique hobby: building gingerbread houses. He got into the pastime when his family began throwing annual gingerbread house building parties. Family and school friends would all be invited for an afternoon of constructing and talking.
“I’ve always just liked making things,” said Urang. “It’s relaxing and once you get into the zone it’s just kind of you and whatever you’re focusing on.”
He would make a base layout on his floor using cardboard frames, and then set icing around it with gingerbread to make it look like a complete building. The process of his crowning achievement— a foot tall tower modeled after a Japanese temple— took him weeks to fully plan and a weekend to complete.
“I remember coming home from school and just cutting pieces of cardboard,” he said. “Then the weekend before the party, I just worked super hard for a couple of days and knocked it out.”
Urang said that the act of building allows him to relax after long school days. As his skills progressed, he moved on to working on more complex projects like intricate miniature painting.
“Warhammer 40,000 is basically a board game that also has minis that you can paint,” said Urang. “After school whenever I have time I’ll just sit down and paint for a while; It’s therapeutic.”
Urang believes that hobbies are important for everyone because they allow people to decompress and focus on themselves.
“I mean, everyone should have hobbies,” he said. “It’s important to have time for yourself. You self consciously reflect and think about stuff. It’s how I come up with most of my ideas. It’s really not that hard to be creative— you just have to let it come to you.”
