Changing Habits and Hobbies in Quarantine

With the coronavirus pandemic invading all our lives so many of the things we’ve enjoyed and looked forward to have been shut down. While we’ve had all this time to sit in our homes our habits and hobbies have changed over the past nine months.

Many found that everything from their eating and sleeping habits to their tolerance and mood have changed during quarantine. While they’ve had a lot of extra time on their hands they’ve also picked up new hobbies.

The first habit that has changed for many of us at Kenwood would be our sleeping habits. With school starting a little later and no need now to get up, get ready, and commute to school those alarms don’t need to be set as early. Junior Emily O, “I have always had trouble sleeping. My family is wired to be up at night not during the day, but with recent circumstances I’ve been staying up later but have still been waking up early.”

Some wonder if their sleep habits are also impacting their work habits when it comes to school. Junior Natalia O shares, “I’ve become more of a procrastinator and stay up late doing my schoolwork.”

Our eating habits have changed a lot as well. KHS junior Emily O shared, “I have had bad habits with eating before. When my anxiety or overthinking is bad I don’t like to eat a lot. It’s almost as if it’s even hard to swallow food, but with everything lately I either eat all day or I don’t really eat anything until dinner. I also forget to drink water.” People are either finding themselves stress overeating or too anxious to eat as much as they use to. Senior Marijke N adds, “My depression makes me not want to eat but the anxiety makes me overeat so whatever one is stronger is what happens!”

Nine months into the isolation of the pandemic we’re all starting to feel the emotional pendalum of depression and anxiety. It’s not just impacting our eating and sleeping habits, but our work habits as well. Freshmen AZ shares, “The more I’m feeling depressed the more it’s causing me to lose motivation, even for the things I enjoy.”

People are also realizing how much they hate being isolated. Junior Starr C shares, “I really do hate the isolation cause it’s making me lazy and I miss human interaction. Yet I’ve lost tolerance for people’s rudeness and ignorance and find myself going off on them more.”

So many people are losing tolerance with isolation but people want to get back to school safely so they get it but the frustration factor has really set in of late. “At first quarantine was awesome but now I need this virus to disappear so i can go back to school. I need to be surrounded by people!” shares junior Starr C. “I feel like my communication and people skills are going down the drain the longer I sit here away from people”

Not only have people’s habits changed in quarantine but some have decided it was time to try new hobbies during this time at home too.

Even though we are stuck inside we can still enjoy ourselves. Over quarantine people have been trying to keep themselves occupied with new hobbies. Over this quarantine many have indulged in new Netflix shows and television watching in general.  “TV provides little happiness. It’s more like a distraction and an escape from boredom,” shares junior Emily O.

“Though I have watched more Netflix than ever in my life and it may be relaxing, I don’t think I’m going to look back at my life and wish I would have watched more Netflix so I’d much prefer to be back to being too busy with living life to watch Netflix,” shares Kenwood teacher Mrs. G.

Because of COVID and everything that has been going on, people find focusing on their hobbies keeps their minds off of what’s going on in the world. Senior Brian M, who is use to spending his time with Kenwood sports, shares, “I don’t usually get to spend a lot of time on my hobbies but when I do I can easily spend hours on them to keep my mind off things and to relax.”

Some students have added reading more books to their hobby time.  “Both books and shows allow me to visit another world and they’re great escapes.” Hobbies can help us a lot with escaping the world and its problems but sometimes we won’t always want to do our hobbies. Some of us are even getting tired of our hobbies. “I love to read and write and I even burnt out of that at one point,” shares Ms. G.

Some students took up new hobbies like junior Starr C. She tried pen spinning. “It’s kind of relaxing and therapeutic, even if I’m not very good,” she shares. Others like senior Marijke have found it a great time to dive into new things like photography and writing. “I’ve been taking pictures of my dogs and writing tiny stories,” she shares.

Whether it’s our hobbies or our habits that have changed in quarantine we’re all just trying to hang on just a little longer until we can return to our back in school habits and hobbies.