One Small Thing at a Time

At this point in time, we are roughly 8 months deep into living in a largely virtual and quarantined world. In recent months, some people have started to go outside again, and spend time with their friends again, but it isn't entirely the same as it used to be. For all the time we are spending at home right now, what everyone needs sometimes is an escape from the whirlwind that is their life around them. These things don't have to major, but a few small things for a short while every day do add up and they do make a difference. These are some of the things I've been doing over my Quarantine.

Firstly, I try to call or video chat with at least one friend every day. It sounds pretty simple, but as you'll see everything I've been doing has been simple. Friends are often the people you can go to to escape talk about academics and work and talk about other parts of your life. You also don't have to only talk to your friends but can do activities with them over call too to make things a little more fun. For example, I watched several NBA Playoff Games with some friends on Zoom, and personally, that brought back a sense of normalcy to my life, because that's exactly what I would be doing with my friends IRL in a world without COVID-19. And similar to this, as often as it is viewed as a waste of time, I spent a lot of my free time playing video games with my friends. Currently, A group of around 10 people try to play Among Us almost every night. We usually get on-call while we play, and even a small thing like this brings a sense of fun to a lot of people. That's the main takeaway from any online interactions you have, try to have fun! The easiest way to forget everything that's happening is to have a good time!

Secondly, take this opportunity to spend as much time as you can with your families. A lot of us are going to be going to college soon, and we are only going to be able to visit our homes every once in a while. Even more so, if the world was normal and COVID-19 wasn't happening, we would be at school, away from our homes for several hours a day, and for a lot of us, our parents would be in the same position. When the world is normal, a lot of people find it difficult between all of this they are trying to balance to spend some time with their families, but Quarantine gives us the opportunity to do exactly that. Instead of eating my dinner in my room as I often did in the past because I was usually working, Quarantine gave me time to occasionally have dinners together as a family. During summer and some weekends, my family and I sometimes play board games or online games with some of our neighbors and family friends. 

I think the big takeaway from all of this is, as hard as interaction with people has gotten, Quarantine has inevitably given us the time to strengthen some of the relationships we already have. Going even further, for the people that are able to or feel comfortable spending time with small groups of people, branch out and try to connect with new people. Compared to a COVID-less life, many of us do have some more time on our hands, so using that time to have fun with the people in our lives is a beautiful thing in itself, but even more than that, it is an excellent way for us to forget the world around us for a few moments.