How One Beijing Student Overcame COVID-19 Isolation Boredom

In Student Correspondent articles, we hear from some of Beijing’s best and brightest students about their takes and perspectives on global and local issues. Selina Ma is a student at Keystone Academy. Here, she shares her personal experience in overcoming isolation boredom.

It’s been three months since the COVID-19 outbreak. In the past 90 days, stress, boredom, procrastination, and the mundanity of isolation have been infused in every second of my life at home. Staring at the laptop screen, wandering around the house, and soliloquizing to the mirror: this is the reality of my life.

“Despite the daily school work, all I do is eat and sleep. The next morning, I wake up, I’ll need to repeat my life yesterday”, says one of the senior student at a Beijing international school.

Every student in Beijing has had to go through the same frustrating experience since COVID-19 broke out, and dealing with online learning, isolation, and spending 24/7 with our parents is just not that easy. However, I have figured out a few awesome ways to cope with the boredom of quarantine.

Facetime Your Friends

Being physically separated from your friends doesn’t mean you can’t socialize with them. Instagram, Twitter, WeChat, and even Minecraft can be a platform for you to actively talk with your BFFs. With WeChat, we can call and video call our friends at any time of the day, and we can definitely share our boredom with people all over the world on Instagram. Staying connected with friends encourages you to be optimistic and joyful at all times. So now, turn on your phone and start calling your friends, ASAP!

Watch a New Movie or TV Series

Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Westworld, Star Wars, Harry Potter, or The Big Bang Theory… I’m sure one of these films sounds familiar to you. Now’s the time to watch something new and interesting. I have just re-lived the TV play that enriched my whole childhood, The Vampire Dairies, and despite the fact that the lines are becoming so familiar as I can repeat every single word the actor is about to say, the story is still as unforgettable as it was in 2016.

Classic movies, on the other hand, have inspired me to think from different perspectives too. Some of my favorites are Inception, The Shawshank Redemption, The Sound of Music, and Flipped. As a profound form of art, movies even have the power to shape our lives.

Pursue Your Passion in Something Delightful

One day I was scrolling through my WeChat moments, and as I glimpsed at a picture of a boy, my eyes were drawn to the skateboard he was standing on. I immediately asked myself “why don’t I try something new?” Without any hesitation, I took the old, dusty skateboard out from our storage room and began my adventure.

When is the last time you tried a new hobby?

I have zero experience skateboarding, but I was propelled with determination and confidence. I slipped countless times, and embarrassingly, I even fell right in front of my brother. Fortunately, I mastered the basic skills in a few days, and today I even managed to do an ollie, which is a trick where you make the skateboard jump.

What I’ve concluded from this is that you should pursue your passion in something you enjoy. Whether it’s a sport or hobby like painting or dancing, the happiness you gain from it is far greater than the challenges you might encounter.

There are plenty of ways to stay busy at home, but at the same time, we should pay attention to our world today. Either by looking at the news or contacting our friends in other places. Coronavirus has affected the economic and social outlooks of billions of people, but still, we should preserve hope and optimism for the near future.

Selina Ma is a 16-year-old grade 10 student at Keystone Academy. She’s a member of the school’s basketball team for over four years, and has is an avid dancer for over five years. Ma plans on pursuing biology and psychology in college and has recently started skateboarding as a way to keep herself entertained during the COVID-19 outbreak.