Finding New Interests Over Quarantine

by brodie curtsinger

More time means more hobbies.

Due to quarantine, we were given more free time, and many students picked up hobbies to fill their free time.

There is more than one reason behind why hobbies struck the world over recent months.

Hobbies can range from working hard to a calm, relaxing activity. A unique interest could be a gift to everyone involved.

According to “Merriam Webster Dictionary,” the definition of a hobby is: “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.” Over the time of quarantine, many people’s jobs were taken away, because of the United States being put under lockdown giving them more free time and time at home.

When put under lockdown, people wanted to find anything they could to keep themselves preoccupied, which would lead into the worldwide craze to start new hobbies. There are quite a few activities that were brought to popularity, over the time of quarantine, such as: drawing, reading, cooking, and more.

Freshman Sarah Monroe has been drawing, painting, and coloring, for around eight years now. “I got started with art, because I knew my uncle was an artist, and I wanted to try. It turned out that I was really good at it,” Monroe said, “I want to be an artist in the future, because I basically have a passion for art, and I love drawing and painting.”.

When COVID-19 started, Monroe picked it back up. “I chose art, because when the COVID-19 stuff started happening, I didn’t draw as much as I used to. So, I started drawing again,” Monroe said, “I would say this is my number one hobby, because now, almost every day, I would draw, paint, or color.” Monroe typically creates backgrounds, and animals.

Junior Diego Gonzalez Soto enjoys reading books, and has enjoyed this activity, ever since he was a kid. “When I was a young kid, I got very into comic books. I got to read a lot of these as I grew up, and besides watching TV, playing video games, and doing any common hobby, I got involved in reading more books, and all thanks to comic books,” Soto said, “writing books has not been my total hobby; only reading them at the moment. Probably in the future I would do so.”

When COVID-19 started, Soto wanted to venture past that. “I realized that books were my thing when I gave a look to those books that I had, and didn’t really use. Now, I usually go to the library when I get the chance,” Soto said, “I usually read graphic novel books. As I said earlier, I grew up reading lots of comic books, and it is still part of the books I read nowadays. I really enjoy getting to see what these books have for the readers, how you get to see how the characters interact, and how its art highlights each book.”

Junior Jacob Collings is a chef and has been cooking for his family for around three months now. “The thing that got me started on cooking, was taking a ‘Foods and Nutrition’ class in high school. Ever since then, I have been the cook at home,” Collings said, “I do like cooking, but that’s not what I would want to do for the rest of my life.” However, this picked up more when COVID-19 started. Collings typically creates all kinds of things, such as tacos, pizzas, pancakes, burgers, etc.

Collings makes dinner for his family, close to every night, and will sometimes make dessert, breakfast, and lunch. “I cook for me, my family, and my friends. I pretty much cook for whoever is at my house, whenever I’m cooking,” Collings said.

Another factor that played into Collings getting more into cooking was when his family got a trailer, giving them a kitchen.

Collings takes Culinary 1, taught by Dave Bustetter.