Bella Poole – Daily Routine
Friday, March 27th
As coronavirus, or COVID-19, has made its way around the world, finally ending up in what feels like my backyard, a lot of changes have been happening for everyone, including myself. My life, as well as the lives of every single person I know, have been affected, altering our lives in a way that is almost unrecognizable. For example, many people are working from home and doing online-school, but some have even lost jobs, at least temporarily, that they really need. Everyone is experiencing challenges and changes from their new ways of life, some more extreme than others.
For instance, me personally, my life has changed obviously, but not in a way that is detrimental to me, for which I am very grateful. Some adjustments I have to make include: the switch to online school, being unable to finish my volleyball season, and not seeing my friends in person. While it has taken some time to come to terms with it all, especially not seeing any other people besides my family, I know that social distancing is the best way to keep myself and others as safe as possible.
My new schedule, which is different, but has a lot of good things looks something like this:
First, I wake up at anywhere from 7:00 to 9:00 am, get ready, by putting on a comfy outfit because I read that a good way to stay motivated is to get into a routine of changing out of your pajamas everyday. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Next, at 9:15, I will join homeroom through Google Meets, which usually takes about 5 or 10 minutes, and then sometimes I will have breakfast or other times I will have eaten beforehand. A positive thing about having to stay home is that I never got to eat breakfast when I went to school everyday because I was always rushing. Now I have time to make myself something.
After that, I will usually Facetime a friend or two for a few minutes before my next class starts, or depending on what class it is until around 10:15. It’s really hard to only see my friends through Facetime, but we’ve found that talking to each other as much as possible really helps with loneliness and boredom.
During the day, most of my classes have a set Google Meeting for at least a part of the period, so I spend a lot of time doing homework and chatting with friends at the same time if I can.
When classes are finished for the day, I usually make myself lunch, which is like a sandwich or a salad. I have found that away from Padua’s tempting treats, I have been making much healthier choices.
During the afternoon, from around 1:00-3:00, I’ll do a number of things, depending on the day, like a workout, go outside and read, go on a walk, or even bake something. Another positive thing is that I have a lot more time to spend doing things like baking or reading that I wouldn’t get to do as often otherwise.
After those things, it really depends how I am feeling that day because sometimes I will feel super motivated to get work done and complete assignments and other times I completely waste my time by scrolling through Tik Tok for hours or watching a new series on Netflix. One thing I have really struggled with over the past two weeks is motivating myself and overcoming all of the distractions that come with being at home all the time. If anyone else is too, I would advise you to not be too hard on yourself, and realize that it is going to take a while to find your groove. So in the meantime, just accept that not everything is going to be perfect, but you will be able to find a way to make it work for yourself in the end.
I know that there are many people who are struggling with the isolation because of mental health reasons or others, so I am really hoping that those people find a way to connect with others if they need to and ways to manage their stress and anxiety that accompanies all of these changes. I also hope everyone stays safe and healthy during these times, and tries to find something to make their days a bit brighter. For me, I think I’m going to start on a puzzle and make some cupcakes today.