It’s absolutely wild to think that we are approaching the one-year anniversary of our lives being put on pause. Many of us were so busy before being abruptly forced to stay at home with limited options of how to occupy ourselves. I confess that the first few months, sitting around being overwhelmed by my boredom were pretty rough. I realized that this period in my life was going to last longer than I initially anticipated, so I decided that I needed to find some things to make quarantine more bearable.
Taking up a New Hobby
With my days now free, I wanted to put all that extra time to good use and learn something new. My sister and I each ordered our own skateboards online and practiced up and down our street until we actually got pretty good. As COVID-19 cases lowered in the summer and our skills improved, we took to our local skatepark (masked up of course) to learn some tricks. Now, we didn’t exactly become the next Tony Hawk, but we certainly had a lot of fun mastering a kickturn. We even met some people who ended up becoming great friends.
Virtual Hangouts
I used to see my friends at school every day, but since all our classes have been online, I struggled with seeing them less. We had to get inventive, and virtual platforms have given us a new way to spend time together. We’ve had big Zoom meetings where we just talk about the most random things; made PowerPoint presentations about topics of our choice and shown them to each other; watched shows and movies on Teleparty; and had Spotify group sessions where we can listen to the same song at the same time.
Valuing Family Time
My schedule before March 2020 was filled with school, sports, clubs, and more. This left me very little opportunity to hang out with my family, so I found myself constantly missing them even though we live under the same roof. But during quarantine, we’ve been able to watch the entirety of Seinfeld—and many other shows—try new recipes like homemade sushi; go on drives to see different places; and eat dinner together every night.
I can't say that I was exactly thrilled to be quarantined in my house for so long, but it allowed me to find the joy in what we otherwise take for granted. I’ve been able to slow down and appreciate all of the important parts of life. COVID-19 has certainly taken so much from us, but I would encourage everyone to do little things that can produce big smiles!
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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