The things we quit and the things we never start

Mike and I were sitting at Taj Palace, me sipping on Colombian coffee and him going at whatever the buffet had to offer. He had just come back from visiting friends in Connecticut,  and was looking a little disenchanted. The crowd there, he told me, was all about the movies and shows they watched, the books they read. He felt out of place and wished he did more of these things.
Last day, a friend of mine told me she felt so "out". All her cousins had gotten really into music and mature movies and reading, while she remained the same.
Right before Syracuse, for a few years, I devoutly spent my time reading rather an awful lot of books and downloading movies (which took something like 8hrs per movie back in the day) and shows. I will say this, the whole experience made me feel much improved, especially the reading. Not only did I manage to escape the reality of unemployment and living with my parents, ooh, all of a sudden, I knew so much more. I had cultivated myself. I was abreast of some of the finest thoughts mankind ever penned down, at least in relation to most around me (and that is after all, what mattered). Also, unknown to myself at the time, I had learnt to wield language somewhat more to my advantage. Since, it was overall a positive experience, I had every intention of continuing the self-cultivation exercise in Syracuse. I got a bunch of books from the library, which to this day, sits covered in dust on the window sill. I managed to read two of them, and then I quit. It was not what I wanted to do with my free time anymore. It was a fine and worthy venture when I had relatively little to do, but not once the PhD program started. I have a tidy bit of management stuff to read every week. Now, ideally, I want my free time to be about relaxation and refreshment. I do not have the patience for highbrow books which drag me through someone else's drama or to watch shows back to back. Very soon, possibly next semester, I will have more time, and then if it suits me, I will read some.
Moreover, I simply don't think of myself as someone who needs more cultivation and refinement (in an intellectual sense, socially I can use plenty of it). There are certainly things I would love to do, like cook or travel or golf. And I certainly hope to have a better balance in life in terms of work, rest and stimulating activities. But I am done with character-building. I know what I am about now, where I stand on things, what matters to me. I do however, constantly think of what I have to offer.
I don't hold anyone who has read more or watched more movies in any higher an intellectual esteem than the next person. Books, hunting or day-dreaming, whatever you fancy for a hobby, if you have something interesting to say, oh goodie.