The first thing that you realize when the whole world shuts down around you and you’re told you can’t leave your house is that you probably took these luxuries for granted leading up to this moment. And while some of us who don’t consider lounging around the house to be anything new, there are a lot of us who considered going out into the world a part of their everyday routine. And staying sane at home during the Covid-19 quarantine is actually proving to be a difficult task.
For me, there’s a small but impactful list of things that have been ripped away. Movie theaters are shutting down, coffee shops closing down, restaurants taking away inside dining, UFC postponing fights, and bars closing their doors (Because I do like to go and play pool or air hockey from time to time).
Some of these things there is no replacement for, and that is going to be hard to cope with. But you always have to look for ways to adapt. For example, nothing beats seeing a movie in a theater. Nothing can compare to that experience. Still, I realize that more movies exist than I’ll ever be able to see, and this is a perfect time to catch up on the classics, and the immense amount of content that is poured into streaming services every month. And while watching them at home doesn’t provide the same feeling as it would in a cinema, there is a different kind of joy that comes with sitting in your room eating sorbet while watching Alfred Hitchcock movies. I’ve even been thinking about ordering a projector from amazon to get my room as close to a theater experience as possible.
The other luxuries taken away from me don’t sting as hard, bars I can do without for probably ever because I usually hate them after 15 minutes of being there anyways. Sitting in coffee shops hurts, but the coffee I make at home isn’t that bad, and my patio is a pleasant creative environment, and restaurants being closed is saving me a silly amount of money, which I can never be mad at.
But then there are sports, I don’t watch anything that’s not a combat sport because I just never got into them, but I know the void basketball, hockey, soccer, and now the 2020 Olympics have left behind during this Covid-19 quarantine will be hard to fill. I’m feeling that personally, with the UFC going away every weekend, I would look forward to riveting matchups and seeing people get kicked in the face, but that has been pulled away from me indefinitely. One of the biggest fights in history, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, was slated to happen on April 18. With everything that is going on, the fate of that event is uncertain. What hurts the most about that is that this fight has been scheduled four times over the last few years, and each time some freak accident comes along and derails it. Here when we were so close to finally seeing it, a global pandemic sweeps over the world, and the curse that is placed on this fight may remain undefeated.
And while it’s not alright to act selfishly during this Covid-19 quarantine where so many people are struggling, the thought of having significant events like this taken away from me is causing more anxiety than the cabin fever from being locked in my home ever could. I’m sure plenty of people can relate to the same thing happening to concerts, comedy shows, music festivals, film festivals. Still, we’re all living in unprecedented times, and we have to roll with punches until all this smoke clears. Maybe we can look forward to an action-packed winter that’s like nothing we’ve ever seen, to tip the scales back after taking such a blow during this Covid-19 quarantine.
Another good idea is to go through an infinite number of articles that are being posted, which relate to ways to keep busy during this Covid-19 quarantine, because you may come across some potentially fruitful ideas. I’m sure plenty of us are resorting to the go-to options such as board games and puzzles, but the rabbit hole can go so much deeper than that.
My girlfriend has picked up embroidery, and just four days into our Covid-19 quartine, she has already made her mark on three different hats. If you have a sewing machine, you can watch endless videos on how to make pajamas and make pairs for your whole family because there is nothing better to wear around the house than pajamas. I’ve been wearing the same pair of sweat pants for three days as an attempt to embrace this rationed form of living we’ve all fallen into.
And then my favorite escape and activity to indulge in during this Covid-19 quarantine are video games. I swear in the middle and high school, I spent more than 200 days of playtime sitting in front of multiple different video games, but as life goes, we must evolve and move onto new paths. That evolution doesn’t account for nostalgia, though, and there isn’t anything that can compete with getting lost in a virtual world for a few hours here and there. And if video games weren’t, so attention-grabbing, then the video game industry wouldn’t be one of the biggest in the world right now. So there is something to be said about their ability to help you pass the time.
I’m personally playing through the entire Borderlands franchise, and I can’t wait to get to Borderlands 3, which came out last year when I didn’t exactly have my focus on video games. My friends and I are also playing a bunch of old call of duty games, which reminds me of skipping school in eighth grade and is making this Covid-19 quarantine feel much more like a flashback vacation than a prison sentence.
So instead of turning out like Jack Torrance in the shining, seek out the activities that provide engagement rather than descending into derangement.
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