Introduction:

With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 the government has been forced to impose a strict islandwide curfew and as a result I have been confined to my home for well over a month now. It has taken some time to adjust to this brand new way of life.

Pre-curfew/start of curfew lifestyle:

My life pre-Covid 19 was in all honestly chaotic, there was no structure, no sort of scheduled outside of the school timetable that governed my daily activities, in summary I guess I just went with the flow of things. Did assignments when they came up, exercised when the mood struck and I didn’t adhere to a sleep schedule. Curfew being placed into effect has forced me to take a step back and re-evaluate my lifestyle. At the start I tried to continue with the method I was use to, doing things as they came up. It was working well with my school work and assignments however I found myself increasingly board during my free time. The problem was due to the curfew the wealth of activities I could do was greatly diminished. I could not go to the gym, or a cafe or even simply go and hang out with friends. Increasingly I found myself spending majority of my time in front of my screen watching movies and TV shows for hours on end to pass the time.

Another part of this unhealthy routine was my diet and nutrition. On weekends I would sleep into the afternoon, neglecting breakfast and sometimes ignoring lunch as well. Due to my lack of activity my appetite reduced overall as well. All of the choices I was making was making me feel drained, irritable and unmotivated. Living like that was enjoyable for a short while but it soon became tiering and evidently unhealthy, prompting me to take a step back and reflect on how I could make the most of my time at home.

Changes:

To begin with I decided to create a schedule that I would follow in order to give my life some structure. My main goal was to work in a time for exercise in order to stay fit during quarantine. As I don’t have any gym equipment at home, I primarily focus on bodyweight exercises and calisthenics. I aim to do at least 30 to 45 minutes of exercise during weekdays and an hour on weekends. I am also fortunate enough to have a pool at home so I try to work in some swimming to maintain my stroke and technique as swimming is one of my main sports.

Another activity I try to do to maintain fitness is playing with my dog. Its a fun kicking a ball for my dog as it allows me to get out of the room and spend time doing something I enjoy away from the screen.

I have also tried to adhere to a sleep schedule in order to help improve my mental health and nutrition. I try to go to sleep every night before 11:30 and i try to wake up at 8:30 on weekdays and 9:30 during the weekends. This way I don’t neglect a breakfast and can prepare properly for lessons which start at 9:15. After making these changes to my lifestyle I have noticed an improvement in both my attitude and health, allocating time for exercise also helps to full fill my obligation to the activity section of the CAS program. However an area I had been struggling in is creativity. I relied a lot on school programs as a creative outlet and I didn’t really do anything in terms of staying creative outside school.

While at home for so long however I decided to revisit the piano in order to satisfy my need to remain creative. Around 3 years ago I took weekly lessons in the piano and had been doing so for around 5 years. However as time went by I unfortunately began to lose interest until I eventually gave up all together. While being stuck at home for the past 2 months I decided i would start trying to play once again. I have tried to play for 10 to 15 minutes everyday just to see how much i can recall from my lessons. I treat this as both a hobby and a challenge. It is something I am just doing for fun but it also keeps me creatively engaged as I really want to see how good i can get by the end of this quarantine.

Conclusion and reflection:

Overall my time in quarantine so far has taught me a number of things. Mostly it is the importance of a daily routine. When you are stuck at home for weeks it is really helpful to have a schedule that you can lean upon, especially when it comes to staying motivated to exercise. It also helps in terms of the CAS program as it fulfills the Learning outcome 1,3 and 4. Re-evaluating my daily routine and accepting their flaws shows my ability to identify areas for development (Learning outcome 1), planning for exercise and time of the piano (Learning outcome 3) and sticking with this daily routine (Learning outcome 4). But most of all this quarantine has showed me the wealth of things I can do from home that we often overlook. As I said before my life was dominated by things I did outside of the house like the gym, or going out to eat or going for a movie. While being stuck at home I realised all the things i could do to keep occupied at home, like picking up a new or revisiting an old hobby, spending time with my family and taking a step back and reflecting on my lifestyle.