The coronavirus has impacted several aspects of students’ lives including school, social interaction,  athletics and extracurriculars, and of course what they do for fun. Before coronavirus, kids would hang out on weekends- going to games, movies, and parks. But that has all changed within the last few weeks. With the new stay at home order students have had to get creative with how they spend their free time without going anywhere or seeing anyone besides immediate family. Some Prep students have shared their latest corona hobbies and how it has impacted their life during and hopefully after corona.

Julia Oles ’21 decided to try cooking during quarantine, which for her is a totally new thing. She shared how she is going to college next year and figured there was no better time to learn how to cook. Oles and her mom cook for an hour each night, making dinner for their family. She shared how her favorite part of the process is eating it! Oles  took advantage of the time she had to better herself and ended up learning that cooking is “pretty fun and it will come in handy in the future.”

Sophomore Kate McLaughlin is another example of a student who is investing her time in something new. McLaughlin shared  how she has tapped into her more artistic self and began making collages for her and her friends. She began by reading magazines to try and escape her boredom and ended up finding a new hobby from it. She finds images, phrases, and patterns within the magazines that she likes and then cuts and glues them to cardstock- “almost like making a mood board” she said. It’s also something she can do in a relaxed and calm environment. She shared how, “I can spend hours flipping through magazine pages and cutting them up while maybe watching Netflix in the background.”

Father Ryan Rallanka decided to devote more time to exercising during quarantine. The Jesuits have an elliptical that he likes to use five times a week or so in order to better himself. He began this routine at the beginning of second semester and with all the free time, he had been able to spend even more time on the elliptical during quarantine. His desire to start this came from the idea of “practicing what you preach.” He and Social Studies teacher Ms. Healy teach a senior seminar called Peace Studies. He shared how “one of our first takeaways was the necessity for those who engage in peacebuilding to be intentional about self-care. I decided that I can’t talk about self-care if I myself wasn’t practicing it!”

Librarian Mrs. Lovejoy, has decided to do something she has always been nervous to do- RipStik-ing. She explained how she has always been afraid to try it because she does not want to fall. She expressed how falling as an adult feels silly and vulnerable. But when her daughters began to ride them again due to the sunny weather, she figured she’d give it a try. She spends roughly twenty minutes at a time on it, but hopes to get really good at it. The best part about it is that she can see improvement. Coronavirus has allowed Lovejoy to finally conquer her fear and she realized, “It’s exciting to not be good at something at all- but to see small improvements as I continue to try. It’s also fun to learn something from my kids, who are so much better at it than I am.”

Social distancing is very crucial to the betterment of the world and the elimination of this pandemic, but that doesn’t mean Prep Panthers have to be bored all the time. Students and faculty at Prep have found ways to take advantage of the extra time to work on new talents, crafts, and conquer their fears. Hopefully, by the end of this virus people will be able to have a new outlook on themselves and maybe even a new hobby to continue outside of coronavirus quarantine!