My friends tell me that they’re struggling with quarantine. I don’t get it. It’s all I see on social media nowadays. People posting pre-quarantined pictures of themselves saying how much they want to hug one another. I hate how my timeline is split into pre-quarantine and the present.
Running from class to work and back to class daily, coming home was nice. I get to sleep in, play with my dog, and watch netflix for hours. I was content unlike my friends despite being amidst a pandemic. A little satisfaction is all I need to get by.
It was about a week after the governor issued the stay-at home lockdown, when I started feeling dissatisfied. I could only binge watch so many hours before my brain felt like it was melting from holding my glaring phone screen four inches from my face. I was bored of being bored.
One of my go-to activities to kill time is cleaning my room. There’s a certain zen of listening to Britney Spears and folding clothes unlike any other. In the process, I came across my collection of rubik’s cubes. Yes, a collection. I was a big nerd in high school (still am) and would secretly solve my rubik’s cube in class. I enjoyed solving them but they were no longer a challenge. I leaped at the idea of learning some new techniques. It’s the daily challenges and irregularities that made pre-quarantined life interesting. There weren’t any challenges in staying at home all day. By the end of the day, I learned how to solve my rubik’s cube blindfolded and had the technique down. It was no longer a challenge and I was back to being bored.
I started to complain about how bored I was. Never would I have thought I would say those words during a semester of college. There was so much to do and never enough time. Like a switch, there was now so much time and nothing to do. I caught myself off guard realizing how radical of an idea it felt despite it being a reality. I complain about not having enough time to read a book or learn a new skill and now that I had time, I still wasn’t doing them. I wasn’t lacking time anymore, I was lacking discipline. Not to mention I was beginning to lack a sense of reality.
I already don’t keep up with the news, but during a global health crisis, it’s imperative. My parents would know since they don’t turn off the news anymore. From when I lazily wake up to when I’m watching netflix at 3 am, I can hear the faint broadcast from the family room. My mom has been incredibly nervous about the pandemic, out of good reason. My father, not so much. He’s been working from home which consists of staring at a computer screen. After he logs his hours for the day, he continues to sit at his desk, playing games or browsing the internet. For being stuck at home, I don’t really see him.
When I’m hesitant about making a decision, I often tell myself “there’s no time like the present” to get motivated. The idea couldn’t be more true during quarantine. I still choose to watch my shows, but there’s a voice telling me I should be doing something productive. The idea of lacking discipline now lingers with me. I was no longer satisfied nor content with the moment, but rather frustrated. Every day was the same blind cycle of boredom and a lack of motivation. I was finally so frustrated with myself for being lazy that if I was going to get anywhere in life I had to work and make the best of the situations I’m presented with.
Every morning I wake up to a new reminder on my phone that says “just try, it’s the least you can do.” Like the switch that isolation was, so was my attitude. I started studying more than just the minimum for my classes. I started reading a book for fun for the first time since high school. Most importantly, I started feeling better about what I was doing and it felt good to feel accomplished. I was satisfied from my work rather than being satisfied with being lazy.
I made a post on my instagram describing what I learned over the past few weeks about myself in hopes of inspiring my friends to take advantage of the present. It’s important to stay positive during times of uncertainty. We do our part to stay home and social distance when we need to go out for groceries. The pandemic will end one way or another and we will eventually resume our day to day lives. When that happens, I want to carry what I learned during this time with me.
As I tell my former roommate, I know you have time for that 20 minute jog in the morning so don’t let a lack of discipline stop you, you couch potato.
Tigran Terterian || Rochester Hills, Michigan || April 13th, 2020