This is an entry at How are you spending your quarantine? 100 Hive contest! hosted by @derangedvisions.
Context
I am a student taking a master's degree in Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics in France.
In my country, because most people did not follow the recommendations from the scientists, our government decided to make the following decision:
As of March 17th at noon, outings will only be authorized, with a certificate, to:
- Go to work, if remote working is not possible;
- Go to your local grocery store;
- Go to a medical appointment;
- Take your children to daycare or to take care of an elderly person;
- To work out close to your home.
Source (gouvernement.fr)
Tho the rules are still unclear, it is obvious that we should avoid any form of physical proximity to help fight the disease. Such measures should last many weeks, and as in France a scholar year ends around May/June, the way we learn has drastically changed and the form of our exams has not been well defined yet.
For me, and without going into much details, this would imply:
- Finishing my research paper without conducting the experiment; do 'as if I was under normal conditions'. Which is pretty hard when you don't experience the situation you are describing, and way less fun.
- Doing my internship aloof or later.
- Suspend some school subject works while exam modalities are being reviewed.
And so just after the quarantine was announced I had to think where would be the best place for me to deal with all the change.
Choice
I had three options:
- Being with my mum
- Being with my dad
- Staying by myself, in my student room
Tho being with my family would lead to a better social environment and help dealing with all the stuff going on, I made choice #3 because I know how productive I can be when I'm alone (or should I say how non-productive I am when I'm with family).
I was aware that this choice would lead to hard times, as we are 'social creatures' and need some form of social interaction. Luckily, we can have digital interactions nowadays, even tho it won't replace physical interactions, but interestingly this can also contribute to bad mood by feeding the bath of anxiety-provoking information through social media (I mean there are a lot of COVID-19 related posts - even this one - I'm not saying it is a bad thing, but we have to be aware of that. This reminds me of the Mean world syndrome).
But because I am a student in psychology I have some knowledge about all this that should reduce the risks and should make me able to manage them more easily, even if it won't keep me from being affected by them. Plus in my education, my father always taught me how to deal with things by adopting a very methodological posture rejecting fear, because it is counter profitable (I'm not saying it is a useless feeling).
Moreover, I was aware that the excess of free time would ironically lead to boredom, which is not counterintuitive as humans need boredom. And being a creator, I can make some use of my boredom when I feel like so.
So I was feeling prepared, and I wanted to try. It is kind of an experiment for me, that I know I can only emerge grown from it.
Fortunately, my parents understood my choice and have been very supportive, as always.
Now here is what I did over the past couple weeks, and what I plan to do next.
Activity
I know that we rapidly lose one's bearings which is leading to confusion. Thus I quickly set up a not very strict schedule to at least have some reference points. The schedule is as follows:
Monday to Friday mornings
At this moment, I decided to focus on school related stuff to basically not have a ton load of work at the end of the semester.
I organized conference calls with some of my teachers to have some feedback on my / our (me + my schoolmates) work.
I also created, along with a friend, a discord server for my university and his. The aim being that teachers who wish to keep bringing some knowledge to their students could do so. Kind of lectures at home. Until now, only 50+ students and one professor from the biohealth master's degree came and from what I'm aware, they already got at least two 'classes'. This is below our expectations but we are very happy to see that we could create a space to provide knowledge.
Monday to Friday afternoons
There, I decided to do productive stuff, mostly related to what I dream of being. This includes making songs, learning flat art design, learning motion graphics etc. Some of that stuff end up here on the Hive blockchain. For example, even under this condition, I was able to collaborate with sSiuHin once again, who is a music producer from Hong Kong. We made this chill track that we are very proud of. I have to say that we are so lucky for being able to collaborate remotely at that time!
Week end days & week days evenings
Finally, the remaining time is for what I want to do at the moment and home tasks. Most of that time is used for:
- Playing video games with friends, and so I purchased Rocket League from which we get a lot of fun 😄 It's our way of socializing.
- Workout at home + go out running once a week, to keep me healthy.
- Watching stuff on YouTube and some anime (I started My Hero Academia and finished season 1 today 😉).
- Read some stuff on Hive of course 😌
Conclusion
At the time I'm writing this post, my mental health seem to be not affected at all by the particular environment surrounding me. But it has only been two weeks, so I'm still 'waiting' for that time to come and I will do everything to keep it away. Beyond that, I have to say that it is difficult to stick to my schedule already, and there were some deviations.
Thank you for reading and I hope you are able to handle all the sudden change too! Stay home, save lives 😊