From woodworking to fixing up computers, people have been taking part in new hobbies ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began more than a year ago. Being trapped at home has allowed students the time to indulge in activities they didn’t have time to do before.
Liam Kean, an 8th grader at Northwest Academy, started carving wood to pass time. Kean says having so much free time has transformed his interest in carving into a hobby.
“I am thinking about trying to carve a bear,” Kean said. “I like carving because as you go along it starts to look more and more like your final idea, and it’s something that there is no right or wrong way to do it.”
Students have found other artistic ways of expressing themselves from home.
“One hobby, in particular, I’ve spent a lot of my time doing during quarantine is embroidery,” Calypso Broll, a junior at Northwest Academy, said. “It’s super calming to me and makes great gifts as well as art to put around my room/house.”
Broll said that she will continue embroidering even after life goes back to normal.
Some people have used the time to help others. Since the pandemic began, infectious disease specialists have said that wearing masks in public can prevent the spread of the virus.
“I’ve started making masks over the summer,” Sadie Siegel-Wilson, a freshman at Northwest Academy, said. “My older sister has a sewing machine from when she was in middle school, and we had some extra fabric laying around.”
Siegel-Wilson explained that she wanted to help friends and family stay safe.
“I enjoy making masks because I can just disappear to a different room and not think about anything while being productive and I also really like doing things with my hands so it works perfectly,” she said.
Some students have taken up exercise as a hobby. Grant Hall, a freshman at Northwest Academy, has started jogging.
“I’m going to every jogging route my neighborhood has to offer and just listening to different songs on repeat for each route,” he said. “So when I listen to those songs when I’m older, I will get memories from high school or quarantine and this time in my life. I just started doing that cause I got bored.”
Iain Carter, an 8th grader at Springville K-8, said that the lockdown has allowed him the chance to pick up an old hobby. Fixing electronics is time consuming, which is something Carter appreciates.
“I would call it taking old or slow computers and turning them into useful machines again,” he said. “Once I have the computer running normally I am able to start using it.”
Augi Richardson, a 7th grader at Northwest Academy, started playing chess to pass time.
“During quarantine I really needed to relax,” Richardson said. “I really enjoyed it and will keep playing after this is all over.”
Over the last year, there has been a spike in video game sales, with so many looking for a place to escape the reality of quarantine. Kai Miller Castles, a freshman at Northwest Academy, downloaded Minecraft.
“I love the creative aspects of it and the plethora of different ways to use it,” Miller Castles said. “Learning how to work on combat and how to kill other players more effectively is always a fun time — there’s a lot of pathways to work on it and it’s fascinating to me to build that out.”
According to Miller Castles, Minecraft can be a great escape from the current restrictions of living in a pandemic.
“I have no doubt that I will continue to play long into the future; it allows me to do what I want to do with less limitations than in the real world,” Miller Castles said.
