It is okay to just be okay

Quarantine is not a productivity contest

Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

In the four weeks that my family has been self-isolating, my sister has baked a coffee cake, muffins (twice), two apple crisps, and four batches of cookies. Meanwhile, I am just trying to keep up with all of my classes. A quick check of social media, especially during the earlier stages of the ongoing quarantine, almost surely includes someone’s fresh-baked bread, hand-knitted sweater, or the result of some new hobby that they have taken up. 

Everybody has their own way of handling the sudden and drastic change in their lifestyles brought by COVID-19. Some of those coping mechanisms are more productive than others, and some certainly look good on social media. However, we have to remember that self-isolation is not about using hours of free time to better ourselves. It is about stopping a global pandemic, and what matters is just that we all make it out okay. 

This is especially important for college students to remember because it does not always feel like we have more free time than we did when we were on campus. The abrupt transition to online classes has not been easy for students or professors. That can lead to increased stress, and in some classes, more work between lectures. It could be natural, then, for students to feel like they are working more now than they were weeks ago. 

No matter how much time you have outside of school work, and no matter how you use it, as long as you do what you need to do to be okay when all of this is over, you are doing well enough. Whatever coping mechanisms you have developed, as long as they are helping you stay healthy and sane, are valid coping mechanisms. My sister, who had her first year at American University in D.C. interrupted by the pandemic, openly admits that baking is a familiar coping mechanism, not a new hobby. There is no requirement for your coping mechanism to be something new. 

There is also no requirement that whatever you are doing to cope, or any new hobby that you might be taking up, has to be something you do well. If you wrote just about the worst poetry you’ve ever seen, but it helped release some stress, great. If doodling in your notebook keeps you awake in an 8 a.m. online lecture, fantastic. You do not have to do something well for it to count. I am not flexible, and I can only manage about 15 minutes of yoga a day, but it keeps me active and helps me relax, so it is a wonderful thing for me to do, no matter how poorly. 

The current situation is new for everybody. There is no one right way to spend time during quarantine. Even if other people seem to be bettering themselves by picking up new hobbies, that does not in any way mean that you have to. All you have to do is make sure that you are physically and mentally okay, so that once this ends you can go to the beach, or out on the town, or your friend’s house. The world will be there for you, whether you learned how to sew or not.