The first few months of quarantine were hard. With little to no stores and restaurants open, most of us had to become extremely creative within the walls of our home. Some of us may have started new hobbies such as playing an instrument, knitting, crafting, painting, baking, etc. Others might have been able to continue a project they were putting off or finally picked up that guitar that was collecting dust in the corner. For myself, I have to say that this pandemic has allowed me to set time aside to focus on myself more. I got my “creative juices” flowing again and started to prioritize my future a little more. To be honest, quarantine wasn’t too hard for me as an introvert/homebody. I’m usually always home if not at school or work and I just loved the idea of being able to stay home (but don’t get me wrong, even introverts have their limits). Permanent remote learning was a little tricky at first but I loved that I no longer had to drive an hour to school every day. There are many positive things that came out of quarantine and I’d like to share them with you!
First, in March towards the beginning of quarantine, I started to become really creative with my social media. Growing my Instagram platform was always something I strived for but was either too insecure or always busy with school and other things. As someone who wants to make a career out of blogging, I figured that I should take advantage of being stuck at home to really focus on my content and take it seriously. I found myself taking Instagram content more seriously once I started my YouTube channel-another huge and positive thing I did during quarantine! YouTube has always been something I’ve wanted to do, I was just way too shy/nervous to go through with it. I’ve always been a creative and artistic person and I’ve wanted to use that creative side of me to share my love for fashion with others. What better time to do that than quarantine? I had nothing but time at this point! So, I finally took the leap and created my channel in April. Making videos during the early months of quarantine was fun because it finally gave me something different to do. Now, five months later, I’ve gained 118 subscribers! Since starting my channel, I’ve drawn more traffic to my account and have been much more consistent with my posts!
Another thing that I was able to focus on was my own personal blog, Rips and Seams. I had started my own fashion blog in 2018 and for a while, I was really inconsistent and inactive with it. There were many reasons as to why I wasn’t active with my blog, lack of creativity being one of them. However, because of the pandemic, I was able to dedicate time to it, organize my ideas, and get it running again. I learned a bunch of new things to help grow my blog which led me to apply and get approved for AdSense! This was a really big step for me as it meant I could start getting paid through having ads on my blog and making it more professional. With all the ups and downs I went through with Rips and Seams, this felt like a big milestone for me.
In terms of school, as I had mentioned, I was able to stay home the rest of spring semester, and now during fall semester which means I am saving a lot of money on gas! Commuting to school in the morning was always a stretch between getting up early and morning traffic. This really saved my butt this semester because I’m currently taking an 8 am class that I so did NOT want to commute for. Thank the Lord!
All in all, there were other important things that came out of this pandemic like being able to spend more time with my mom (who’s now working from home too!), cooking meals instead of eating out and being able to focus on what I want for my future. Even though the circumstances were unfortunate, had we not been in a pandemic we may not have been able to grow or start new hobbies, spend time with family or learn more about them. Take this time to reflect on at least one positive outcome that came out of quarantine for you. We also need to remember to give ourselves grace and not put so much pressure on ourselves. Some of us may have slacked on self-care, put on some more weight, or have had bad mental health days (all of the above for me) but we need to remember that this is a hard time for everyone. We didn’t ask nor expect for all of this to happen and now, six months later, we’re still struggling to make this our new “normal”. It’s okay to have bad days. You’re doing great, just take it one day at a time.