1. Get Crafty

Unleash your inner artist!

There are so many artistic activities that you and your family/friends/roomies can try together. It doesn't have to be solely painting or drawing either.

For those who try on seventeen different outfits in the morning: Get some old magazines. Cut out your favorite pictures, apparel, and accessories and create different outfits by putting them together. Refer to them when you are having difficulty picking out outfits for an occasion.

For those who love painting: Get out your favorite paints and canvases and follow Bob Ross tutorials on YouTube. They're relaxing, and there are so many to choose from. Try a new painting every day!

For those who miss their friends: Make friendship bracelets! Gather any string or beads that you have lying around and make a gift to give to your bestie when social distancing ends. Look up how to make knot bracelets if you're feeling extra fancy.

For those who refuse to try art or believe they have no artistic ability: Open your mind. There is so much time on your hands that could be used to dive deeper into yourself. You never know, you could be finding a hidden talent that you never knew you possessed!

2. Become A Food Network Star

Bon Appétit!

Head to your pantry or refrigerator and grab four random food items. Star in your own version of "Chopped" by trying to make a recipe or meal out of these items, and compete with your quarantine gang or make teams. For an extra challenge, you can give yourself a time limit.

Try new recipes in tucked away cookbooks that haven't been opened in years, or try memorizing recipes so you don't need to continue looking the recipe up.

Try baking, too!

3. Write

If you are one that likes to put your thoughts on paper, this is for you.

Start a book about your life or a dream you wish to accomplish. Start a blog or a vlog on YouTube. Write a song or a poem and memorize it. Practice your calligraphy skills, or improve your handwriting.

Write a letter to your friends or your family across town. Bullet journal or plan out your year in an agenda. Write your favorite quotes down and add to the list whenever you hear another one you like!

4. Train Your body

Let's be honest. The majority of this quarantine, we have been staying in bed and watching Tik Tok or Netflix all day. Get up and get moving! Exercise is so important for both your physical and mental health. Since this is a stressful time for all of us, why not reduce that stress with a little jog in the morning or even walking your dog in the evening?

If you are on total lockdown and are not allowed to leave your home, try some indoor exercises! Do pushups and sit-ups. Try planking to tone your core. To build your strength, try yoga. Work on stretches so you can do a split.

If you're like me and you absolutely despise working out, try something fun that will get your body moving. Try learning a different Tik Tok dance each day! Play Just Dance with your gang (You can look up Just Dance songs on YouTube). Play charades with your folks. (You'd be surprised at how exhausting one game of charades is.)

5. Train Your brain

It is easy to have our eyes glued to the TV or our phone while we're at home. Instead of browsing social media for hours upon hours at a time, try looking up things that will be educational.

Download Duolingo on your phone and learn another language - I am currently learning Latin to enhance my vocabulary skills. Watch "How it's Made" on YouTube and learn about how everyday items, such as a laptop or a notebook, are made. Watch a documentary on Netflix and learn about someone's life.

Read a book, or two, or one a day!

Have a competition with your family/friends and see who can remember their time tables the best. Play old school games such as chess, cribbage, building puzzles, or Scrabble. Memorize the fifty states and capitals. For a harder challenge, try memorizing all countries and their capitals!

If you're currently in school and all of your classes are moved online, try to get all of your assignments done before the evening that way you can relax afterward. Try to apply yourself to your classes even more than you were before and achieve straight A's! There is so much more time to study and to ask your friends or classmates for help so you can focus on getting that 4.0.

6. Become A Musician 

Who doesn't love music?

Pick up an old instrument and teach yourself how to play it. Fortunately, I have a piano in my home so I can work on my skills. However, if you do not have any instruments at home, try making your household items into instruments. Fill glasses with water and try to cover a song with them.

Create a playlist on Spotify and share it with your friends. Mix and match music and become your own DJ. Make playlists for your moods, when you work out, or one that you think describes your best friend.

Try singing. Put on a performance for your gang or recreate a scene from your favorite musical. Personally, I love musicals, and I have been listening to a new musical every day!

If you are an expert in music, try composing a piece to play, or write your own song to perform for your friends.

7. Become "Marie Kondo"

How many of you have actually gone through your stuff within the past five years?

There is a show on Netflix called "Tidying Up" that shows a Japanese woman, named Marie Kondo, teaching people how to properly go through their belongings, otherwise known as "purging." Of course, you do not have to fold all of your clothes into tiny rectangles or talk to your objects and ask them if they spark joy; however, organizing can act as a stress reliever. It can help our unconscious selves let go of our past and move on if we physically get rid of things we are holding onto.

Go through all of your clothes, and ask yourself if they are worth keeping or if you will use it within the next year.

Go through your desk and sort through pens, pencils, tacks, rulers, and any other things within your junk drawers. If you have leftover boxes, label them and put like items together so everything is easy to find. When I moved into college, I wrote a list of everything that was in the box that way I did not have to take everything out and create a mess. As soon as I put something in the box, it would go on the list, and I would tape the list onto the box. This made it so much easier to find what I was looking for.

8. Clean Clean CLEAN!!!

What else is there to do??

Give your car some love! Give it a wash, and clean out the interior - wipe down the seats and seatbelts, clean out cupholders and door pockets.

Light a candle and give your home a nice scent, too.

Also, since there happens to be a virus going around, make sure you are disinfecting doorknobs and items you frequently touch so you keep a safe and clean environment. As soon as you come home from the store or a walk, wash your hands - this way, it'll be a habit even after the pandemic is done.

9. Treat Yo' Self

Create a spa day for you, any girlfriends, or even your partner!

Get all of your nail polishes out and try different designs that you have never tried before, such as marble nails or polka dots. If you do not have a "dotting tool," you can simply make one by getting a sewing pin and sticking it into the eraser of a pencil.

Make your own bath bombs and relax your body, too. There is a multitude of recipes online for making some.

Practice different hairstyles and up-dos, and become a pro at doing your own makeup. If you are in high school or college and your prom or formal was canceled, have your own event at your house! Get dressed up and take pictures, that way you can have them saved for your memories in the future. And if you practice doing your hair and makeup, you won't have to spend money on someone to do it for you in the future if you do have a special occasion to attend, such as a wedding!

10. Connect

Connect with others

Call or text someone that you fell out of touch with. Start a new conversation and keep up with how they are. Call every person in your family and tell them how you have been doing or what is new in your life. Write letters to them if they are old-fashioned.

Connect with yourself.

Find out who you are and the person you want to be. Understand yourself and practice self-love during this time. Reflect on your thoughts and fears and dreams and share them with the people around you. This is a perfect time for personal growth and becoming the best version of yourself. Write down what makes you unhappy, or try to point to why you feel a certain emotion one day. Being more in-tune with yourself and your emotions will, in the end, make you a stronger person and able to inspire others to start their own journey.

After all, this is something that we cannot control. As much as we may want to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it helps us, humans, to stop, take a breath, and live in the moment with ourselves. We can never predict the future as it is, and this is the perfect time for us to live a little. To spend time with our loved ones and to think about all of the little things in life we often take for granted. Open your heart, and let go of the anxiety and stress of trying to know when this will all be over, and take this opportunity to grow as a person.