Because when else are you going to find the time?

1. Learn a new language. I feel it would be hilarious to learn a damn-near dead language like Gaelic. How funny would it be to say “I was so bored over the break that I learned Gaelic.”??? Just me? Not surprised. Well anyways, I will be taking this time to dive deeper into my French language education to prepare for my upcoming trip to Paris, which brings me to my next option…

2. Plan an entire trip abroad. I recommend planning this trip for the distant future when this pandemic has calmed down, but if I’m not mistaken, flights and AirBnB’s are probably really cheap right now? So if you book everything for, say, a year from now, this is probably the best deal you’re ever going to get! Then you have a full year to look up fun places to visit in your destination of choice, and save as much money as you can for the excursion before it’s time to make student loan payments! My destination of choice is Paris, and I’ve already planned to go there in October of 2021, which is 564 days from now, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.

3. Online Movie Night with Friends! We need to practice social distancing to slow the curve here, people. There’s a bunch of different apps on the App Store for watching movies or videos in real time with your friends. Airtime allows you to video call friends while watching Youtube together, and if you have a laptop and google chrome, download the extension Scener to Netflix & Video Chat with bae. (This is long-distance-couple tried and true.)

4. Watch your favorite childhood TV show, and take a shot for every adult-joke that flew over your head. Disney+ has put me on a major nostalgia train right now, but you guys, you would be surprised how much we missed when we were seven.

5. Start a new trend on TikTok. So, I’m not happy to admit it, but I ‘ironically’ downloaded TikTok over the holidays to annoy my sister by stalking her profile, and now I’m very, un-ironically obsessed with it. I feel like that’s how a lot of people got hooked, too. We think it’s dumb, but we get it anyways because it’s like reality television—we love to hate it—and now? Now we’re trapped. People on the site always say that it’s so “easy” for anyone’s videos to go viral, so why not try to start a new trend?

6. Your laundry? Just throwing that out there…

7. Dress bougie and have a full-on photoshoot at home. This one might be more geared to my female readers, but I digress. Take that beautiful selfie, honey! Get his attention, girl! Bonus points if you can get your family to either help you or join you! If you actually do this, please tag me, I’d love to see it.

8. Learn how to make 3 new cocktails! St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, and while it’s normally the trend to just drink a lot of green beer, why not get a little spicy? If you’re looking for inspiration, I’ve got you right here. You might not have all the necessary supplies at your disposal, but half the fun might be in substituting ingredients and making something horrible! Hey, prank your family! If you’re reading from Ohio or Illinois, this is probably your best option… sorry.

9. Bring back prank calling. My friend Lesli and I tried to prank call my sister last Tuesday night and it was such a mess, but a lot of fun. Lesli planned on using her very deep, scary voice to tell my sister something stupid like ‘the call was coming from inside the house’, but as soon as my sister picked up we looked at each other and started laughing. This is to say, I forgot how much fun it can be (WHEN IT’S HARMLESS. Be mindful of what you say, and how people will react.)

10. Play Bingo with your family. If your family is anything like mine, this will NOT be as boring as it sounds. Maybe y’all could play for squares of toilet paper? MAYBE you could play bingo WITH SQUARES OF TOILET PAPER!!! Write a number on each square and whoever creates a winning board gets to keep the toilet paper they used!!! (Don’t actually do it that’s such a waste)

11. Build a pillow fort. This one might be more fun if you include #4. Let’s get childish this week. I will honestly, truly give $10 to the first person who builds a pillow fort, and sits in it during any kind of online lecture where your professor and peers can see you. $15 if they ask you where you are. I’m serious.

12. Learn to cook. If cooking is an adulting-necessity that you’ve been avoiding, now’s your time to shine. Start simple if you’re NEW-new, or try to make that complex dish you’ve always wanted to try. I enjoy cooking but I’m not pretending to be the best at it, however I’m going to take this time to get better. If you want recipe inspiration, here’s a couple simple, cheap ones that come highly recommended by me. (My fave is the Dragon Noodles)

13. Get your life together. I’m half-kidding and half-serious. You know all those things you’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t had the time for? Now is that time. Establish a good, healthy morning routine. Maybe try working out. Clean out your closet. Purge that friendship you know isn’t working for you. (You have mandatory quarantine time to lie low while it blows over!) Update (or start on) your resume. Look for jobs or internship programs where you can apply your degree. I don’t care if you’re a freshman or a senior, it’s never too early or too late to do this stuff.

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14. Order-In LOCALLY. Still not ready for number 12? Now is also the time to support local businesses! If you’re in bigger cities, Seamless and Grubhub are showing the most promise right now, per their mass email-campaign regarding how they’re handling this outbreak and supporting local restaurants (IMHO). If you don’t trust eating out right now, (totally understandable) you can buy gift cards to your favorite local restaurants (that way these establishments can make use of your money while this outbreak affects their business), and simply use the voucher when the world gets back on track!

15. SeLf CaRe dAy. I, personally, can’t believe that we are facing a global pandemic. I can’t believe what I see on the news, what I hear about Italy. I’m sure you can’t believe it, either. This stuff is scary! It is so WEIRD! So, a self-care day might be both beneficial and necessary. Eat your favorite comfort foods, drink half your body weight in ounces of water and then undo all that good work with an entire bottle of your favorite wine. Sleep in, do some yoga, write in a journal or on the back of old homework. Keep your phone off all day or simply abstain from social media. You know what you need, but ultimately, give yourself a reset-day.

16. Donate the money you’re saving at home to COVID-19 Relief. In yesterday’s post, I wrote about CDP’s relief fund that’s helping to support healthcare workers, quarantined and at-risk individuals, and hygiene promoting activities like WASH. You can donate to them here. OR if you would like to find your own charity to make a donation to, here’s a good website. ADDITIONALLY, if you’ve been to Italy like I have and loved every second of it (hence all the old photos from my trip 3 years ago being used as blog thumbnails this week) you can donate to this charity, which is working to help support Italy’s hospitals that are overrun with corona patients (they’re already building a new ICU!)

17. Mess with your friend’s FOMO. Target the weak. Take a snap. Make it look like you’re partying the night away somewhere fun. Strengthen their social-distancing skills. Remind them that only the strong will survive.

18. For theatre majors: Write. Your. Lear.