Hiya!
Come this December, so 2 months, it will be 39 years for me.
This hobby has been very good for me. I've been DM'ing primarily (I'd guess...36 of those 39 years), and I
KNOW it's taught me and let me develop my own critical thinking, forethought, and all that other stuff that comes from being the "Master of the Game". I spent countless hours at school, after school, on the weekends, and all summer vacations hunched over the magical tome's that made up my D&D and AD&D collection (and later, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, and all the others). Doing this expanded my vocabulary to "confusing levels" for my non-D&D classmates and teachers. I mean, when you're 13 and write an essay that uses words like "milieu", "nomenclature", "obfuscation" and "incorporeal preternatural forms of ethereal entities"....and your teacher accuses you of having someone else write it for you because they, themselves, don't know what you're talking about. Seriously; had teachers ask "Ok, what does 'nomenclature' even mean? And what's a 'milieu'?". It's even MORE disheartening when your teacher doesn't know what the word "melee" means.
sigh
Oh, and, obviously, D&D has nurtured and enhanced my ability to be creative in virtually all forms; 2d art, 3d art, animation, model building, sculpting, music, etc. I guess when you use your creative 'brain' almost constantly over decades...you get "really big brain creative".
^_^
Paul L. Ming