Santa Clara County’s shelter-in-place order directs everyone to stay home and restricts the operation of all non-essential businesses.
With sporting events, concerts and schools canceled and social distancing continuing, many students are becoming stir crazy because of a lack of social interaction.
“I haven’t seen my friends in weeks,” said 18-year-old EVC student Christopher Chavez , who plans on majoring in biology. “Not only do I miss my friends, but I miss working. I can only scroll through social media for so long.”
Rather than being glued to their phones, students should take this extra time to make and achieve goals.
To help prevent the boredom that many students are facing, listed are five new things to try during this pandemic.
Try a new recipe
As busy college students, food is something that we need to be convenient for when we are on the go.
Whether living alone or with family, this time is perfect for learning new recipes and expanding culinary skills.
Learning to cook is very beneficial to physical and mental health. Staying away from fast food and takeout is a better option, especially during quarantine.
It is also very rewarding putting love and work into making your food and being able to share it with your friends and family.
- Try a new hobby
- Painting
- Crafting
- Knitting/sewing
- Exercise
- Learn a musical instrument
Try meditation and yoga
As we feel a bit trapped at home with not much to do, students are more likely to feel anxiety and frustration. With hundreds of free yoga and meditation guiding videos online, help is easily accessible.
“The best thing I can offer right now is a little bit of yoga to help you find some stability, some grounding, some time spent inward,” said yogaist Tim Sensesi in his new Quarantine Yoga Challenge YouTube video.
Yoga is a great way to meditate while developing strong mind-body awareness. The Quarantine Yoga Challenge is an instructional yoga video program Sensesi is offering for free on YouTube.
“Meditation has significantly improved my life,” said author Ashley Selleke in her meditation blog. “Once I realized that you don’t have to sit cross-legged with your eyes closed, I found it to be a great way to step away from the chaos of life.”
Try journaling
A very therapeutic hobby to pick up right now would be journaling.
Goodtherapy.org explains journaling as the purposeful and intentional use of reflective writing to further mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellness.
We are seeing history happen before our eyes and will look back at this moment and remember how different life was.
Keeping a journal would be like recording how it was to be living during this time. Your journal entry could make it into a history book one day, or it would be a great memento to share with generations to come.
Learn something new online
In light of COVID-19, many online education providers are reaching out and offering free online courses.
As college students who usually have to pay for courses, we should take advantage of these opportunities while we can.
Coursera is offering free business and computer classes from Duke University and Georgia Tech until May.
Nikon is offering free online photography classes throughout April. Rosetta Stone offers 3 month free trial language learning courses.
There is something for everyone.
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