Graphic by Sesame Gaetsaloe/The Choate News
While being stuck at home for weeks may seem fun at first, cabin fever kicks in quickly. After mourning the loss of your senior spring, running out of toilet paper, or wondering if you’ll ever hear Dr. Curtis reminding you to “use the crossings” again, it is time to re-center and prepare for the remainder of the school year. Whether you’re spending an unholy amount of time on Netflix or being forced to have awkward political conversations with your family, here’s how to make the most of your quaran-time.
Step 1: Stay Home
If you haven’t already been bombarded with Instagram posts, Snapchat stories, and website pop-ups telling you to protect the world and stay home, here’s a quick reminder. While at home, you might find comfort in obsessively cleaning or playing with pets. Despite your boredom, remember that by staying home, you are doing your part to prevent additional novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.
Step 2: Succumb to Online Learning
Choate Zoom School is in full swing, and with it has come a whole new form of entertainment. While the current set-up for online classes is not the jazziest, it allows us to receive education from home. Of course, there is the occasional “Zoom-bomb” and that one person who keeps forgetting they’re muted, but in general, classes have been running smoothly. To spice up your online experience, design original Zoom backgrounds funny enough to make attendance worthwhile, stay on the lookout for those #ChoatePets that love to make an appearance, and please remember to mute yourself if there’s a lawnmower or garbage truck right outside — the whole class doesn’t need to be reminded of the forbidden outdoors.
Step 3: Develop a Routine
Developing a daily routine is perhaps the most important task to accomplish while homebound, especially for some international students dealing with far-off time zones. Try to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day, create daily study hours, practice singing the school song, and wear nice clothes. While it’s tempting to stay in those same sweatpants and only put on a sweatshirt after rolling out of bed for class, remember that dressing for school can set the mood for a productive day of online learning. And, if you need more motivation to ditch the just-out-of-bed look, remember that Zoom will do absolutely no favors for your appearance, so you might as well do what you can. With the extra time from canceled classes or sleep-ins, try some daily exercise, start doing yoga, take a break with meditation, or repeat some positive affirmations (my favorite has been, “I still have three extra rolls of toilet paper”). If your city allows it, try to go on a walk early in the morning to rest your eyes from the unending barrage of blue light from your devices. To prevent getting carried away and neglecting your assignments, set aside structured slots with start and end times for eating or watching TV. Overall, come up with fun activities that will keep you entertained even throughout the most boring hours of quarantine.
Step 4: Take Care of Mental Health
With so much happening in the news and relatively little positive media, it’s difficult to keep an optimistic perspective. Sometimes, the best alternative to watching grim media briefings or reading depressing news headlines is to spend time distanced from work. Make sure to reach out to grandparents you have not talked to in a while, schedule a family Zoom session, or have a moment of silence to remember those you wish could still be with you. If needed, reach out to the Health Center Counseling Services to get some extra support. All Choate students get access to Headspace, a guided meditation app, through Self Service, so make sure to take advantage of that resource to focus on the here and now — two things that are easy to lose track of when scrolling through the endless Apple News updates. Keep your attitude up by finding the silver linings: use this time to bond with family, re-cultivate hobbies, or maybe even bust your neighbors on their underground hand-sanitizer business.
Step 5: Look on the Bright Side
As cheesy as it may sound, we have a lot to be grateful for. School is still in session, while many students have solely asynchronous learning and no human connection. We have a supportive Choate community, and there are plenty of ways for us to get back in touch with campus, whether that be through chaotic form meetings or reminiscent pictures on Instagram. Most importantly, there are ways for us to stay connected with distant family and friends. Take this time to reflect on privileges that we may have not fully appreciated before like a hug from a friend or a trip to Chipotle. When campus eventually re-opens, simple things like being able to see your friends every day will be all the more valuable.
