Editor’s note: Julie Maylum, Perry Middle School seventh grader, offers the following reflections on her life during the novel coronavirus global pandemic.
During this time, I have found that it is very convenient to work on yourself whether that is spiritually, mentally or physically.
I have recently been feeling very productive and centered lately. I don’t have to worry about balancing school, track, piano, band, choir, working out, a healthy lifestyle, hygiene and social life all at once.
I guess you could say that it is a really good time to get your life in order and even though we can’t do some of the things we wish we could do, there are some positives to this time we are spending in a dark hallway of uncertainty.
I think that everyone in quarantine has a new focus to make up for their lost time that they should be spending doing something else . . . or would be spending doing something else. This obsession may seem bad, but it is actually healthy and distracts us from what we would normally be doing.
Humans always want some sort of certainty. This new obsession lets us have that because we know that even if something bad in our lives is happening, we can always resort to our new focus.
This may seem pretty serious and sentimental if your focus is online shopping right now or, in my case, if you have a new liking for origami, but doing this thing provides you with some certainty and assurance, and you know during the time that you are doing it that you don’t have to think about what is happening in the world around you.
That, to me, is the best feeling during this time because it is that one thing that is going to stay the same. I strongly encourage others in quarantine right now to find hobbies that you can resort to in this time of uncertainty. This new hobby just might be a candle to hold in the dark.
