Hobbies students have developed during quarantine

After being sent home for about 365 days, many students have suffered in this period of isolation and have turned to hobbies as outlets for their stress. Many students utilized this time at home as an opportunity to be productive and cultivate hobbies.

With all the time on their hands, students have used this time to explore their interests, express their feelings, or even pick up hobbies they have never had time to do.

Junior Anais Harley has sparked interest in reading.

“I actually started reading because of the BookTok which has given me so many recommendations and I didn’t have much to do so I started reading and I fell in love with it,” Harley said. “Colleen Hoover has become my favorite author because of some random book recommendation TikTok I saw on my For You page after I spent all day looking for something to do due to quarantine.”

Senior Rekab Hailemariam has used writing poetry as a creative outlet to express her feelings and emotions.

“I started writing poetry right about when COVID started. I figured I should write my feelings because I was going through some things prior to the start of quarantine and this whole pandemic. My poetry was first about my feelings so I would center the meaning of the poem about my feelings, and it slowly started to turn into love poems almost similar to romance books but in a poem style,” Hailemariam said.

Junior Karen Howell spent most of her time on the warm beaches of Hawaii prior to the pandemic but then spent most of her time surfing before she moved to Maryland.

“Growing up in Oahu, I spent most of the time on the beach with my friends whether it was after school or on the weekends. When we were sent home for quarantine, my friend Taj finally taught me how to surf and that’s how I made the most of my time,” Howell said.

Some students have used this time to start businesses with some of their favorite hobbies, Senior Ella Gaul being one of them.

“During November/December, my sister and I got an embroidery machine and we now embroider presents and get paid to embroider clothes for others! Being at home has given us the time to be able to learn how to do this and also a space to work,” Gaul said. “We decided to try this because we had the time and wanted to try a business.”

Junior Sara Susa made use of this time to practice baking which she never had time to enjoy.

“I was always so busy with school and the amount of school work I never really had time to bake but when we were sent home for two weeks, I used that time to bake desserts, I even baked a cake for my friends birthday!” Susa said.