Items

• 2021-01-14

  Five Ways to have Fun during the Pandemic

  The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has brought hard and difficult times for everyone. As an employee at a local bank, I was deemed as an essential worker. As a result, for the vast majority of the pandemic, I was working, helping people however I was able. While being deemed an essential worker, our bank rotated staff, and as a result, I spent about two weeks at home. During my time working and my time at home, I got into two things: movies and the stock market. 1. Movies Before the pandemic, I had never been a major fan of movies and films. However, with my time quarantined at home, I took advantage of this time by watching classic, critically acclaimed moves. Some of the favorites that I watched during this time were old Martin Scorsese films like Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. I also watched the original Scarface movie (1932), the Godfather series, as well as Braveheart. Watching these classic movies introduced me to a whole new world. 2. The Stock Market Working at a bank, we were hearing quite a bit about interest rates, mortgage rates, and, of course, the stock market. One of my coworkers introduced me to the market, showing me how to buy and sell stock. After piquing my interest, I began doing my research, learning the difference between terms like “value stock,” “dividend stock,” “blue-chip stock,” “exchange-traded funds,” etc. Outside of two new things I began to enjoy and spend time doing, the other three things that have helped me get through the pandemic are things that I have always enjoyed, but things I have come to appreciate even more: sports, classic literature, and technology. 3. Sports When the pandemic first began in early to mid-March, I remember looking forward to the beginning of the SEC basketball tournament and watching the Tennessee Volunteers basketball team play the Alabama Crimson Tide (since I am from Knoxville, I love the Vols). The game was set to start at noon; however, earlier that morning, I saw on Twitter that the SEC tournament had been canceled. Slowly, all sports began following. As an Arsenal F.C. fan in the English Premier League, I was also disheartened to hear that the Premier League would be postponing their season. However, with a lot of hard work and coordination, sports slowly began coming back. In mid-June, the Premier League resumed its season and in September began a new season. Likewise, the NFL season was able to go on, as was the college football season. While sports are, in the grand scheme of life, fairly insignificant, they provide people with a sense of community and a distraction from depressing life events. I will certainly not take sports for granted after the Covid-19 pandemic. 4. Classic Literature Since the senior year of my undergraduate degree, I have slowly grown to love classic literature. Making time to read books simply for fun can be hard to do in the daily hustle and bustle of life. However, Covid-19 slowed down the world for me. During my spare time, I read from plenty of authors, namely, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus, Leo Tolstoy, John Steinbeck, Alexandre Dumas, and others. Many of these authors discuss philosophical questions of life and existence. The first book I read at the start of the pandemic was The Plague by Camus. For the time, it was more than fitting, helping me to mull over the Covid-19 pandemic. These authors have provided a brief escape while also providing various questions and answers about how to confront life, even in a pandemic. 5. Technology Before the pandemic, I never realized how much technology can help us during times of quarantine. I have never really been tech-savvy and thus I never stopped to think about how important technology is, especially during a pandemic. While there are obvious drawbacks to technology in society, being able to facetime with my family and communicate with loved ones who had contracted the virus was very special. Again, while technology has many problematic elements, connecting loved ones during the pandemic has certainly been special.