How Quarantine Benefitted Me

HOW QUARANTINE BENEFITTED ME

MEGHANA VINJAMURY

perspectives editor

Ever since I was five years old, people would compare me to Rapunzel because of my long hair. This past year, that comparison stuck with me, and it wcwasn’t because her kingdom’s name is Corona. Quarantine seemed like a never-ending version of Tangled: being stuck at home, not for 18 years, but for a relatively long time. Ever since Rapunzel got locked up in the tower, she dreamt of watching the lanterns released every year on her birthday. Since the start of the pandemic, I, too, longed to see the best version of myself by the end of quarantine, and thus I saw each aspect that I wanted to improve myself in as an individual lantern.

The first thing I wanted to work on was my sense of style; I had slowly started to become that person who only wore hoodies. So, I did the only obvious thing and scrolled through Pinterest for hours on end to find and pin outfit inspiration. I also threw away the clothes I did not wear anymore so I could make space for new ones. I feel like my style was also budding before quarantine, but it’s now at a place where I’m not only comfortable with what I wear, but I’m also almost dressing exactly how I always wanted to dress.

My next hurdle was my mental health and self-care habits. I often put others before myself, even if I was exhausted, so I decided to try and prioritize myself for once. I picked up a few hobbies like cooking, baking and art to keep me relaxed. I was hesitant initially, but trying new things added variation to the monotonous routine I used to have. I also started a skincare routine so I could look after my skin better because earlier, I just washed my face in the morning and called it a day. Although it was difficult to find a routine that worked for me, I now use a toner, 2 serums, and a moisturizer (thank you TikTok for introducing me to The Ordinary). I saw actual results a couple of months later, but it honestly helped me become more motivated and happy throughout the day.

In August, I started to notice that it quickly became harder for me to keep track of my assignments and extracurriculars. I used to only use sticky notes and Google Calendar to document the tasks that I had to finish and plan for things I wanted to do in the future. Although it worked, it was inefficient because all the information I needed was divided among an application and the giant wall of sticky notes I had in front of my desk. After watching countless YouTube videos and Pinterest boards, I found Notion and immediately started to create a sophisticated planning system. It took a couple of days to set up at first, but I was able to replicate my sticky note wall and track my homework and classes in a more structured manner. Ever since I started using

I, too, longed to see the best version of myself by the end of quarantine.

Notion, I have always finished my homework on time and started to perform better in classes, even in those I found challenging.

One of my favorite outcomes from quarantine is that I started to embrace my culture; this past year has truly shown me how beautiful and diverse Indian culture is. I started by watching more movies (maybe a little too many) because I learned Hindi (at least understood it) through watching Bollywood movies. Then, I started to dress up in traditional attire more often (not just for holidays) because my mom does it, and I wanted to try it out. The hardest thing I tried was learning how to cook Indian food. Earlier, I couldn’t cook at all, so I was honestly really confused when I made my first recipe. Now I’m pretty good at it!

Throughout quarantine, I had many ups and downs, which at first made me despise it. After using the extra time I had to improve myself the way I want to be, I realized how helpful and eye-opening this whole year has been. Quarantine is kind of like the lantern in my story because it helped me achieve things that I thought I could only dream about.

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