Before I say this, here’s a quick disclaimer: I’m fortunate enough to be able to sit at home while school’s closed without having to worry about income, meals or any other things. Not everyone has this luxury, and this time can instead be stressful and challenging. However, for a lot of students who are still dependents, they face a pretty similar situation to mine during our school’s COVID-19 break and parent-imposed quarantines.
This break initially seemed like a respite, a prequel to summer break where I would do nothing but hang out and be social all day. However, panic mounted and the reality of our situation set in; we have an unknown number of weeks to sit alone, by ourselves, away from any of our usual obligations.
There are generally two reactions to this: one of sadness or one of relief. Now, despite my proclaimed extrovertedness, I fell into the latter. The busy flow of the school year and all extracurricular and social obligations were finally being interrupted and I could take time to do things I cared about without feeling guilty.
Of course, I’d rather have everyone not at risk of a virus and back in school, uninterrupted, but that wasn’t how things shaped up to be. Instead, this is a glass-half-full perspective to a hard and unfamiliar situation. The easiest way anyone can avoid putting themselves or anyone else in danger was to stay home, so that’s what I’m doing. I’ve cleaned my room, read, baked, got ahead (or caught up) on work and spent time on “passion projects.” This looks different for everyone. Maybe you’re spending your break starting your at-home fitness journey, learning a new skill, or even just sleeping in, watching TV and taking much-needed time for yourself.
I know some people thrive off of constant contact. I still need to be digitally connected with my friends all break, but I’m out of any obligations of “let’s hang out!” or “let’s go here!” I can say “no” without feeling guilty, because I have a fallback: COVID-19. Maybe this is a lesson to say no to things more, or maybe this is just what I needed so I can throw myself back into the swing of things once we return. Either way, even if I can’t control whether or not we’re at school, it’s nice choosing to control what I’m doing with my time out of school.
Photo by Katie Clark/The ECHO
