As society continues to stay on lockdown, we have seen many new hobbies people have taken up to pass time. From binge-watching television shows to painting portraits, people have found creative ways to entertain themselves while maintaining a routine while spending time at home.

Sophie Hugh ’21 has started to spend more time cooking and sewing during quarantine. Her mother is an avid sewer, and introduced her to the activity as a way to spend time with family members and to take a break from spending time with technology.

“I’ve started cooking a lot more, and I’ve also started doing embroidery and knitting too,” Hugh said. “My mom loves to do it, so she has all these blankets she’s made. I don’t know how many she’s made at this point.”

Molly Wysocki ’22 has started to practice yoga as a way to de-stress and to spend time away from her computer. Online schooling has caused her to spend more time on it, and tries to do yoga as a way of distancing herself. .

“I started doing yoga about two weeks ago and I’ve really enjoyed the past few weeks,” Wysocki said. “It’s been a fun activity to get away from the computer screen after school, so it’s been good.”

Throughout the past several weeks, Hugh and Wysocki have also begun to notice a positive impact as a result of these hobbies, including how it has impacted their health as well as creating stronger bonds with family members.

“I’ve had tight muscles ever since I can remember, so stretching has always been something I’ve been told to do, but I never really devoted a lot of time to it, so I got interested in yoga just as a way to de-stress from looking at a computer screen for five or six hours.” Wysocki said. “And I can already feel my muscles loosening up because of it, so it’s nice.”

Hugh has been able to enjoy spending time with more time with her family, as it has helped her to be able to relax and reconnect with her family, instead of spending more time on her phone- a normal habit that she did before the lockdown started.

“I like being with my family more and I like not being on my phone as much, because I really struggle with separating myself from my electronics, so it’s nice to take a break in order to just hang out with my family.” Hugh said.

After doing their hobbies for the past several weeks, Hugh and Wysocki have recommendations for people who are starting to find a new hobby and try to figure out what to do during this time.

“I would say give it time.” Wysocki said. “Yoga is not something you could get good at overnight, and I’m certainly not good at it now, necessarily. But I enjoy it, so I think with starting anything, give it time. Make sure you really enjoy it because it’s not going to be fun and you’re not going to keep on doing it or stick with it if you don’t enjoy it.”

In the era of social distancing, Hugh also recommends finding someone who you can do your hobby with- such as a sibling or a parent.

“Have someone to do these activities with.” Hugh said. “It’s not really a big deal, it’s just you have to have someone that’s wanting to do it with you, who just wants you to figure it out. Use this time to your advantage, because you really have been given the gift of just endless time to do whatever you want.”