#justquarantinethings

​I’ve lost track of how many weeks in we are in deep of the stay at home order. I’ve been bored in the house and I’m in the house bored (if you watch Tik Tok you definitely know what that means.) Although, instead of focusing on everything I am not and can not be doing, I want to dedicate this blog post towards everything I have been doing, and you can too, at home in quarantine. 
One thing that I have been doing to keep myself busy is journaling. If you are one of my close friends, probably the only people who actually read this blog, you know that I’ve been keeping a journal since the end of high school. It essentially serves the purpose as a place where I can quite literally dump everything and anything on my mind. I do my best to keep it positive but sometimes getting something off of my chest and onto paper is very therapeutic and helps with my chronic issue of overthinking. Also, I do this thing that I came up with called “flashbulb memories,” which is essentially a short story that I write in my journal. Any moment that I experience that makes me think, I want to remember this feeling for the rest of my life, I try and write down as soon as I can with all the little details that made the experience so sweet. I do this because I don’t want to forget what it feels like to be 19 and each “flashbulb memory” that I document is a little receipt of a moment that might have been gone forever. 

Since we are living through a major historical event right now, anything we write down in quarantine is documentation of ourselves living through what one day is going to be in the textbooks. Not that it is really the same thing, but I sometimes wonder if Anne Frank ever thought her journal would be good enough to be published as a major piece of historical evidence for the historical event she lived through.  It’s interesting to read back on my past journal entries that I wrote at the beginning of quarantine versus now. If I had a favorite entry from the chapter of my journal called “quarantine” it would be one that I wrote in week 4 of the stay at home order, 

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...Anyways, quarantine is our reality and as hard as it is and as painful as it is to feel lonely and isolated from friends, it’s slightly comforting to know that everyone else is alone together. This time is honestly unique because there is nothing I can physically/ meaningfully do to not be lonely. Like there has never been a better time to tackle the concept of being alone and feeling content that way. Quarantine will be our reality for a least another month and I feel like this time shouldn’t become meaningless waste.

​I feel like it honestly hasn’t been a waste so far either. Like this month I took time to work on myself and now I’m okay and have been ok with being on my own after the breakup. For this next month in quarantine, I want to continue working on myself which involves practicing more self-love, learning more about myself/ how my subconscious works, being creative, and treating myself and my family with kindness. Also, I want to read more (I’ve got a book coming in the mail) because I feel like my whole life (work and play) involves a screen and I’m realizing that it is not the most healthy. 

Also, I would like to note that on the top of my page, I wrote “song that I am obsessed with and have on replay at the moment: “So Good at Being in Trouble.” Anyways, I love journaling and really enjoy reading past entries to look back on how I was feeling. I definitely would recommend starting a journal!

Another thing I’ve been doing is at-home workouts. I actually have never worked out more in my life than I have been doing recently and I hope to continue this habit I’ve picked up in quarantine once we can reenter society again. I think it is important to be mindful of things you may be doing more often in quarantine that make you feel good. Once you identify whatever that may be, you should consider implementing it into your life post quarantine. My hot girl summer is loading and I can’t wait to feel and look good at the beach when they reopen. I’m actually planning on dedicating another blog post to my personal work out that I have come up with when I am not doing a work out class via Zoom. Stay tuned. :) 

Lastly, I’ve also picked up a new hobby. I am now a skater girl. My parents are freaked out that I’m going to fall off my board and get really hurt, which is definitely a valid concern, but I promise I’m being careful. At the beginning of quarantine, I posted on my Snapchat story asking people from my hometown if anyone could lend me their old skateboard so I could learn during this time. To my surprise I had 10 people reach out to me saying that I could have their old boards. Since the skate shops are closed, I gladly took up the offer from the first person who reached out. 

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My goal is to be able to ollie, which is probably the most basic skating trick in the game, by the end of quarantine. Even though no one is physically here to show me how to do what I’m trying to learn, so many of my guy friends have been very quick to swipe up on anything I post about my skateboarding journey and give me their opinions and tips to make my ollie better. Thanks, guys. Also, shout out Mike for FaceTiming me and doing the ollie over and over again so I could see how it is properly done. This was a few weeks ago and at this point in quarantine, I’m able to skate around my town when running errands. 

The other day I had to go pick something up from across town, and my sister was using the car, so I decided to take my skateboard to run my errand. This was probably one of the best days I have had all of quarantine. When I was on my board I passed a group of band kids practicing in a front yard while sitting 6 ft apart; it brought a smile to my face. Then when I was riding down another street, I passed some kids and a young girl, who was probably in middle school, riding a skateboard in her front yard. We immediately locked eyes and said what’s up and I knew right away that that girl was going to grow up to be a really cool girl. I had to walk my board up the hill so I could get to where I was trying to go, not going to lie it was really hot and it tired me out. Although when I was heading home, I was able to ride down a hill with the perfect incline where I wasn’t going too fast but was still picking up a decent amount of speed so I could cruise. The feeling of riding down that hill was so thrilling and was the first time I really felt free in quarantine. I’m hoping to continue this hobby of mine so I can start riding down Comm Ave. to class when we return to school in September. So many times before quarantine was a thing, I wished I would’ve been able to ride to class so I couldn’t be late. 

Anyways, quarantine is a perfect time to pick up any hobbies you have been interested in but never had the time to really get into until now. Carpe Diem my friends! By the way, that was a reference to “Dead Poets Society” an amazing movie with Robert Williams that I really recommend and think you should watch in quarantine. :) If anyone actually reads these posts, I would love to hear what my reader (s) have been doing to keep themselves busy during quarantine in the comments! ​