While this “break” from school has certainly been unexpected and stressful, there are plenty of things that we, as students, can do to de-stress and stay healthy — and that doesn’t just mean exercise. From hula hooping to baking to color-coding your bookshelf, there are many ways that you can cure your boredom. Here are four ideas to make the best of this time off from school.
# 1: Learn a new skill. Is there a keyboard in your house that you’ve been wanting to learn how to play for years? Have you always wanted to learn how to draw? Are you interested in origami? Take advantage of your time over this break and learn something new. First think about what interests you (sports, music, art, etc), and then go from there. If you can’t teach yourself, there are plenty of tutorials online for different skills (not to mention countless apps and websites as well). Do some research and jump into it!
# 2: Reconnect. As students, many of us live incredibly busy lives and thus find it difficult to keep up with our friendships. Use this time to text a friend or relative that you haven’t spoken to in a while. Reaching out is incredibly important for your mental health; if you’re struggling with who to talk to, please feel free to contact any CHS counselor or teacher. Everyone is here to help.
# 3: Catch up on books, movies, and TV. While binge-watching Netflix can be temporarily fulfilling, consider enjoying other mediums of storytelling as well. Here’s Goodreads’ best books list; it spans from classics to young adult to science fiction, so there’s definitely something for everyone. Not a fan of books? Check out audiobooks and podcasts via Audible, Spotify, or the Books/Kindle app (my personal favorite podcast is John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed). If you’re not a TV or literature person, check out this list of movies everyone should watch in their lifetime.
# 4: Learn something. If you’re up for learning more than what you’re currently doing in online school, there are a host of free courses online. Check out Coursera and edX for interesting classes in everything from arts and humanities to computer science. If you want to improve your language skills, Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are great options (you can use Rosetta Stone via the Chatham Library for free).
