With the structure of school gone and our inability to see friends, many of us are struggling to stay productive and sane during quarantine. To help you better cope with these times, we as a team put together some of the things that are helping us get through quarantine.
Working Out-Chloe Zumwalt
One of the best tips I can offer for quarantine is to stay active! Many studies have shown that staying active and exercising boosts your mood, and it reduces anxiety and depression which for many in quarantine, their issues with mental health have only been amplified and have tried their best to help alleviate them.
Exercising can also improve self-esteem because you will feel better and more confident for having done it. I personally have grown more confident during this time, and it is probably from having worked out so much.
Staying routinely active kind of sets up a schedule of sorts. Having consistency in your life may be a huge relief. For me, I wake up, bum around for a half-hour or so, then I stretch and go running. When I come back home, I’ll also sometimes do a weight workout, or watch an online video. Then I have the rest of the day to do what I need/want to do and before bed I have my own mini workout series as well.
Make Daily To-Do Lists-Angie Mendoza
Excelsior has encouraged students to make hourly schedules to keep us on task. If that helps you, you should do that, but odds are most of us aren’t going to stick to a strict schedule. A to-do list, however, may be a good middle ground to provide a bit of the structure we’re missing without school without it being overbearing. You can use a notes app, a daily planner or just a piece of paper. Write the day at the top then list your plan for the day. Start off with the subjects and assignments you want to get done for Excelsior, then add on other responsibilities like elective work or chores, then add in anything left like “go for a walk” or “start reading a new book.”
Having a list of activities and responsibilities allows you to cross things out as you go so by the end of the day you can see what you got done. This not only holds you accountable but if you have been feeling like the day goes by without having any idea what you did, it helps you visualize each day and feel more productive. It’s also super helpful writing out the day of the week so you don’t lose track!
Get Ready with Nowhere to Go-Angie Mendoza
For all of you that are getting hit hard by the isolation and lack of structure, there will likely be days where you don’t feel like getting up and doing anything at all. That’s totally okay, but whenever you can bring yourself to get up and get ready, it can drastically improve your mood. Spending months at home in your pajamas can make you feel more trapped and contribute to the floating feeling of having nothing to do, but keeping up with your morning routine can add back in a sense of normalcy and confidence. Even if you don’t want to put in the effort, or want to wear something comfortable during the day, be sure not to go to bed in the same clothes you wore that day. Change into a different pair of sweatpants or pajamas if you have to, as long as you’re doing something to separate your day and night routines.
Make Playlists-Angie Mendoza
I’ve found that I’ve been listening to music a lot more since I’m always home. It’s easy to overplay music during this time, but it’s also a great time to find new artists. A great way you can keep yourself busy and find new music is making new playlists. You can make them for yourself and create themes to match your mood or you can make them for friends and consider what they’d like. If they also make a playlist for you it’ll help both of you break out of your comfort zone of listening to the same artists. Either way, if you’re in the habit of listening to the same music on repeat, I encourage you to explore your music taste while you have the time.
Positive Outlook-Alexia Mailloux
Quarantine could be a more depressing time for some people because they’re used to seeing their friends and family and plans had to be canceled, but don’t let that stop you from staying positive and becoming a better you. Maybe this year already wasn’t the best for you, maybe you lost some close friends, had some drama, or annoying family issues. Now is the time to think about who has really been there for you and makes a positive impact in your life and get rid of the people who aren’t so loyal or that put you down sometimes. Positivity is one of the most important things right now because we aren’t sure if things will ever go back to normal, but we can always hope that the “new normal” feels the same as before Covid-19.
Meanwhile, now is a great time to take advantage of all of this free time and either practice your favorite hobbies or learn a new hobby and maybe even find a passion for it. There are so many hobbies to pick up on, and it's a great way to pass time. We should feel very lucky that we live in a time where technology is great and where we have access to many learning resources online. The only person stopping you from staying active is you. It’s understandable if you have homework to catch up on, or you have to babysit your siblings, but one very helpful tip is to make a schedule of things you want/have to do during the day and make alarms for them on your phone. It might be hard to follow it at first, but eventually you’ll adjust to it. If you do find yourself babysitting all day have your siblings join your hobbies. It keeps them occupied and you can still in a way have time for you. Here is a website I found that’s a list of many hobbies http://www.notsoboringlife.com/list-of-hobbies/
Remember to stay motivated it’s healthy for you and your body, if Rapunzel did it for 18 years you got this!
Netflix-Elizabeth Montes-Rojas
We’re all trying to come up with things to do during quarantine. We’re all trying to keep busy while staying home and social distancing. You can watch movies on DVDs, but no one really does that anymore. We all use streaming services. We’re all longing to hang out with friends and watch movies and hang out, but under all the circumstances we cannot. I’ve been watching Tv shows and movies using Netflix Party, which is an extension on chrome that plays whatever you’re watching in sync with your friends and has a chat on the right-hand side so you can talk while watching. It’s easy to use, and I’ve used it to watch Tv shows and movies with friends these past weeks.
I’ve been trying to watch everything I’ve considered watching for the last few months or seems interesting enough to see the first five minutes. Luckily, there’s time for all the movies I want to watch and all the shows I want to get into.
Suggestions for Netflix:
Movies - Her, Limitless, Room, I Am Mother, What Happened to Monday, Cloverfield, and The Cloverfield Paradox.
Shows - You, The Mist, The Rain, The Society, and Trinkets
Anime – A Silent Voice, Kakegurui, Beastars, and K
Gaming with Loved Ones-Kailin Brown
It can be hard to connect with your friends and family sometimes, especially now. Usually, you would be at school learning and interacting with your friends but now we have to find more creative ways of staying connected. One way I recommend connecting with friends and family during quarantine is through online games that you can play with them.
During Quarantine, I discovered a few games that you can play by yourself or with your loved ones. The first game is Skribbl.io. Skribbl.io is a free game where you take turns drawing objects then the other players have to guess what the drawing is supposed to be. You can play in a random room or create a private room so you can play with your friends. The second game is Uno. Most of you have probably played Uno at least once. You can find the Uno app on the App Store or Google Play.
I’ve been playing these games with my friends and family often. Every week, I meet up with my friends on Zoom to play games and talk to each other. Sometimes, I video chat with my family on Duo to talk and maybe play a few rounds of Skribbl.io. We want to see our loved ones in person but doing so can be dangerous. This will be over soon. We can get through this together.
Video Games-Isaac Cordero
Quarantine is giving us the opportunity to catch up or play the newest game’s the universe has to offer, as many online game stores are having big sales on most new and older AAA title games. Those out there who own a PlayStation 4 can get the epic thrilling adventures of Uncharted 1 to 3 and the beautiful, magical adventure of Journey for free for a limited time. In my opinion, this year has been the best year for video games with the new highly anticipated sequels and remakes like Animal Crossing New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch, Doom Eternal, Resident Evil 3, and Final Fantasy 7 remake for the PlayStation 4.
Animal Crossing New Horizons is the fifth entry in a beloved series. If you never heard of or played Animal Crossing before, it’s about peaceful living with cute animals. New Horizons takes an already much-loved formula and adds more, making this game a calm, peaceful experience. Crafting, terraforming, and the calm, gentle gameplay make for a wholesome experience that no game has ever been able to copy. Anyone can pick up this game and have a fun time. I suggest this game to anyone who wants a calming experience.
Doom Eternal is the long-awaited sequel to the 2016 remake. Doom Eternal is one of the best first-person shooter games ever seen. Doom Eternal’s story can be messy even if you have played the first game, but no one plays Doom for the story. We play it for the action and hardcore gameplay. You get to fight the demonic beings from Hell as Doom Slayer, the game's silent protagonist who kills everything with a heartbeat in his path. This game is not for the faint at heart as it is full of blood and gore. If you just want to have a great time killing demons with metal in the background, then Doom eternal is a perfect game.
Resident Evil 3 is the survival horror remake of the Capcom 1999 classic video game. You play as video games’ greatest female police officer Jill Valentine as she has to save the people of Raccoon city from the T-Virus outbreak. All the while, she is being hunted down by Umbrella Corporation’s (creators of the T virus) greatest monstrosity, codename Nemesis. This reimagining of a classic is near perfect as just like the Resident Evil 2 remake, the graphics are perfect and make the characters as real as they ever did. Unlike the horrifying RE2, RE3 is more action-oriented. RE3 is still a solid horror experience with gaming mechanics from RE2 and RE7 as well as some new mechanics inspired by the 1999 classic, like dodging, to give the game a fresh spin. Since this game is a prequel to RE2, you don’t need to play any of the previous games to know what’s going on in RE3. The only problem that I and many others found with this game is that it’s too short of an experience with only five hours of gameplay and a huge lack of any other game modes. I suggest this game to anyone who loves horror and if you want to play RE2 as well, it’s only $20 on Steam.
The year was 1997; it had been three years since the beginning of the 3D age of gaming. Squaresoft, (also known as SquareENIX) famous for their hit Final Fantasy series, left Nintendo to join PlayStation and make a revolutionary game, mixing beautifully animated cutscenes with painted backgrounds and a story that was sure to capture the hearts of millions. This game was Final Fantasy 7. FF7 was many people's introduction to Final Fantasy and even JRPGs. So twenty-three years later, SquareENIX Released Final Fantasy 7 remake on PS4. Playing as our protagonist Cloud Strife, former SOLDIER now mercenary, players are hired by his childhood friend Tifa and Barrett, the leader of an Eco terrorist group known as Avalanche, to help take down the Shannara Corporation and save the world, but you soon learn that Shannara isn’t the only problem.
FF7R brings new gaming mechanics to keep the game fun and addictive to play. FF7R characters and locations are brought to life with beautiful character models (specifically Cloud) and a gorgeous city that makes this game visually stunning. While some people view SquareENIX making FF7R an episodic game series as a downside, I see it an opportunity to see the world and places, like Midgar, we were barely able to see in the original. FF7R only focuses on the first hours of the original game and turns it into a 33 hour surprisingly enjoyable experience. FF7R holds up to the original game that took the world by storm all those years ago. I love the game from its gameplay and characters. I suggest to anyone who wants to be a part of a story, a world, and have fun to play Final Fantasy 7.
Writers:
Chloe Zumwalt
Angie Mendoza
Alexia Mailloux
Elizabeth Montes-Rojas
Kailin Brown
Isaac Cordero
Photo Credit:
@trigomemetry on Instagram of @blondiewasabi on Twitter
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BY8i3B8Ho/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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