Quarantine Life
How keeping busy during quarantine has helped me find what makes me happy
Last semester I was able to experience school in London, England, and if you ask any of my friends about it, it is all I have talked about since being back. Since I was not at Hofstra during the fall, I was excited for everything the spring semester would have to offer. I was starting an internship at a big company, transitioning into a managerial position at the radio station, and seeing my friends who I had not seen in six months. Little did I know the spring semester I thought I was going to have would be completely different than expected.
Transitioning from being abroad for an entire semester to coming back to Hofstra was harder than I thought it would be. My semester didn't start off on the best note for me. I was constantly busy with classes, interning and working, while also trying to catch up with all my friends and the things I missed while away. I am the type of person who wants to make everyone happy. While most of the time, that isn't possible, I try my best to. During this time, I truly forgot about my mental health, and how I need to make myself happy before others.
Zoom has become my best friend through this whole quarantine. It helps me stay connected to both my professors and my friends. Keeping in touch with my friends is something really important to me, and it's been helping me gain back the moment and memories I didn't get because I was abroad. Every morning I find a new location in my house to do work in. By moving locations in my house, it helps me to stay more focused and gives me a change of scenery. I move from my bedroom, to the kitchen, to the dining room and even to my deck outside when the weather is nice and warm. Each day, I try to facetime at least one friend, to catch up on life and all the things that have been going on, but also talk about the memories we made this time last year.
On March 11, a couple days after Hofstra cancelled classes, I packed up a bag and went home to New Jersey. I hadn't been home to Jersey for more than 48 hours since coming back from abroad(maybe that was the reason I wasn't happy). I thought that this would be a perfect mini break to figure out myself and my mental health.
I only packed enough clothes for a couple of days, thinking I would be going back to Long Island next week and everything was going to go back to normal. One week later, I realized that one bag of clothes would not be enough, and I would be stuck here for a little longer than I thought. I returned back to Long Island on March 18 (even though there was still a stay-at-home order in effect in Jersey), and packed a little bit of a bigger bag, and thought how I have no idea when I am going to be back in this house or back in New York.
As of today, April 27, there are 111,188 positive cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey. Every day I use NJTV News to get all my updates on the coronavirus in New Jersey, as well as following NJ Governor Phil Murphy’s updates on his Twitter.
Lee Iacocca once said, “In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” Keeping yourself busy and finding things to do that you enjoy is one of the most important parts of getting yourself through quarantine and not going craz
Besides completing all the work for my classes and attending lectures, I have been trying to do a lot of other things to keep me busy and sane during these crazy and difficult times. Spending time with my family is something I have been doing a lot. Although all of us are pretty much tired of each other, we somehow always find something to do to keep us busy. Whether it is baking together, watching movies or going outside, we always find at least one thing to do together a day. I don't think I realized how much my family actually means to me, until I was gone for so long.
Going outside is something that I have always done as a stress reliever, but because the beginning of the semester was so busy, I was not able to do it as much as I would have liked. Now that I have more time on my hands, I have been going on daily walks, runs or hikes to keep myself busy. There are many times I get frustrated because I am stuck in the house and there is nothing to do, but going outside for a run or walk lets me clear my mind.
Over the past month, I have found the small things that have made he happy. I've learned that sometimes to be happy, I need to be busy. No one ever thought that this is how the spring 2020 semester would go. Although there are times that I think this will never end, and I wish I was adventuring somewhere in Europe, I remember my family, friends and I are healthy and, hopefully soon, all of this will be over. In the meantime, I am going to keep finding new things to do that I enjoy to keep me busy and sane.
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