How have you felt in the past month? Have you been relaxed? Mad at the world? Lonely?
Being forced to stay inside is something none of us have ever experienced before. We finally have so much time on our hands, time to do things that our busy selves wouldn’t dream of doing.
But yet we choose to complain about it all – how we got our college lifestyle, friends, memories, taken away from us. Truth is, I haven’t been sad about this stay at home order once yet.
I needed a pause in life so badly.
I think when we choose to be constantly on the go, we forget the things that actually make us happy. Especially in college, the things that matter the most to us often fall into one into one busy day that goes by too fast.
Being in college is a series of balancing out priorities, and it is easy to run yourself dry, which is why this was the break I didn’t know I needed.
What if we used this time to discover ourselves more? Instead of reminiscing on what we don’t have, we could start getting things done that we never had time to do before. I have found that being creative has been my outlet during this time. Doing things that don’t involve school and work has been immensely therapeutic.
For me, it has been about finding joy in the little things: things that take up a lot of time, but are simple, like tie-dying some shirt I found in my closet, or spending hours painting on a canvas. Things that I would have never had time to do at school.
I have resolved to spend my free time doing consuming yet relaxing things that remind me of what I actually sincerely enjoy about life. I do not mean just activities or past times, I mean the way I lived. Living too fast was dangerous, especially when it superseded cherishing each and every moment.
I started realizing that in order to truly enjoy the busy lives we carry on in college, we needed to take moments and days and slow down in order to appreciate the things that our best selves don’t even remember.
I think that’s one goal that anyone can identify with: a time where we all could do it all at once, where all we had to do was sit back and think.
So, think about the ways in which we could lead lives we actually enjoy. Then maybe when we all come out of this we could enjoy our everyday lives more, and not take for granted the little things. Going out with friends and being able to appreciate all of the consumerism that surrounds us on a daily basis is going to feel different.
