Hello Readers,
In case you haven’t been keeping up, this is the fourth post in my “Self-Isolation” series where I write about my experiences learning from home and coping with this altered way of living, providing you with a student outlook on life under the COVID-19 lockdown. In past posts, I’ve written about the adjustment to using online tools for learning and teaching, as well as managing stress surrounding the deplorable situation in the world. Today’s post will be a tad more oriented to the CDS community. I’ll be compiling some personal anecdotes and stories I’ve gathered from friends about how they’re making the most of their time at home.
A cliché “silver lining” can be found even in this pandemic with an open mind and hands itching for occupation. The push for motivation and productivity while we’re all stuck at home, as I mentioned briefly in a previous post, can be troubling and can easily lend its way to negative self-talk and remorse for not having accomplished what you thought you should have. Nevertheless, there’s an endless list of activities and hobbies that can be picked up and worked on with all this extra time, as long as you are assured that you aren’t making yourself feel obligated or tied to them once you begin.
Over the past couple of days, I’ve started learning the electric guitar with the help of YouTube – I’m not a particularly musical person but small little steps in a forward direction when learning something as difficult and intricate as an instrument can be immensely rewarding. I’ve also tried my hand at lyric writing, which isn’t something that I’d ever thought I could get into. I find that teachers are assigning work that can be done, for the most part, during class time, so I sometimes find myself with extra time to fill. Excessive screen time has discouraged me from watching the amount of Netflix that I normally would in my downtime, as I’m finding my head and my eyes begin to ache after a school day’s worth of sitting at my computer.
I’ve spoken to some friends, asking them to share their experiences trying their hand at something new or something they haven’t had the time for. Activities ranging from flute playing to baking, from language learning to journaling and solving puzzles were among the responses. Every single person I received input from mentioned feeling liberated, ironically, whilst having to stay home, and as though they were finally feeling creativity and inspiration to do things they never even thought of doing. Hearing these stories from people close to me about how they’re finding a new sense of curiosity and desire to experiment gave me the encouragement that I needed to continue to build up new skills and hobbies in these tough times (and I hope it has the same effect on you!).
That’ll be all for this week’s blog post! I sincerely hope that you’ve been enjoying my little entries here on educationwithbalance.com, whether you’ve been keeping up from the start or are just clueing in!
Until next time,
Christina
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