Having a hobby serves as a positive impact on our well-being, it allows us to remain mentally productive although it serves as leisure time. Hobbies serve as those couple opportunities during the week that you can focus on things you enjoy doing. They mitigate stress that may accumulate during the week, and provide an outlet for creativity, a distraction, and something to look forward to as well.

During this time of COVID-19, many of us have had a change in our daily lives. In March, when schools transitioned from in-person to virtual, I went from driving to class on a daily basis and being busy with classwork to virtual classes and trying to find a way to fill in some of those gaps to keep myself distracted.

I found that reading or journaling the hour leading up to sleep helped.

I have always loved reading, but went through a period of not finding the time to enjoy it as much. Now I can finally catch up on reading that stack of books in my room I have wanted to read for the last two years. I'm currently reading Anotherday by David Levithan, the sequel to his first book Everyday, the book gives another point of view from one of the main characters, Rhiannon.

I have also always wanted to journal, when I started journaling again back in March, it allowed me to brain dump all of my thoughts into my journal. I have noticed a decrease in stress in the evenings when I am able to write all of my thoughts onto that piece of paper. Getting all of my ideas or stresses into my journal served as my way of getting all of it into the universe. It also serves as a way to write stuff down about current events; when I look back at it in a decade I can read what I was doing during my life in quarantine.

Another activity I have partaken in during COVD-19 is gardening. My family has done a garden in the past, yet this year it served more as a way to keep myself busy more than ever. When classes ended the last week of April, I had to find something that I could do productively instead of sitting in front of the television all day long. Which, to be honest, I did and am still currently binge watching television shows but had something during the day to distract myself from the news and social media.

Hobbies have been really helpful these past few months in taking my mind away from both social media and the news lately.

My new interest in the garden sparked more interests in cooking and baking as well. I was able to plant cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, among a few others. From these vegetables, I made pickles, salsa, and zucchini bread. And not to toot my own horn but it is all so good. The activity in which I started to mainly partake in led to another that I personally love doing. I recommend it for anyone who can start a garden, even if it is a little one. Being able to see what I started and where it has come makes me feel so successful.

All of these activities or hobbies I have mentioned, journaling, reading, gardening, and cooking, have all served as a way to have fun as well as mitigate my stress. Being able to put my attention to something and work towards an end result, has led me to want to continue what I have been doing. I will continue to brain dump my thoughts into a journal whenever I am overwhelmed, read to relax myself, garden every summer to obtain fresh produce, and cook those new recipes. Having these activities to look forward to has definitely served a positive impact on myself during these times of quarantine.