With all outside activities and school itself coming to a halt, there is now an abundance of free time that many of us have never had. It’s safe to say that a majority of students have been catching up on time to relax, whether that be catching up on sleep or binge-watching the newest show on Netflix.

Initially, this was all I had ever wished for, the ability to truly do what I wanted to, when I wanted to, without school or other commitments that interfered.

The first week of “break” due to corona, where there were no academic responsibilities, I admittedly was in my happy place. I went from movie to movie, with the occasional baking and napping included in the routine. During that week, I put all of my thoughts on hold. School, testing, and all other activities never crossed my mind.

The next week went almost the same, although the introduction of online schooling changed my routine a bit and forced me to actually go back to thinking about grades and even college. I began to notice that I was beginning to become bored of watching Netflix and playing Minecraft, something I thought could never happen.

To fill in this time, I began doing things I always wished I had had the time for. I cleaned and reorganized my room, baked an immense amount of cookies, and did mundane self-care like painting my nails and applying face masks. These tasks, however, soon became too repetitive.

I would wake up, complete schoolwork, and then follow the same routine, because that was all I could think of to fill up the free time. When I was at my busiest point, this dilemma would have been seen as a blessing. All the time I had ever wanted, with almost no requirements on what I had to do. At first, it felt that way.

But as quarantine goes on, the seemingly never-ending amount of free time is beginning to wear on me. I begin to become stressed, as I have checked off all the blocks on my to-do list at 4 PM.

I know that the obvious answer to this issue would be to just relax, maybe watch a new show. I tried that, but the continuous “relaxing” soon only did the opposite for me, as I only became restless and bored.

I felt like I was wasting this free time, by filling it all up with seemingly meaningless tasks. Eventually, the stress began to set in. I could be doing something much more productive than this, I would think to myself. I see other kids my age creating all of these amazing things, and it was hard for me to not feel like I should be doing that, too.

Originally, I was going to channel this stress by studying for the ACT. However, due to new policies, I am now unsure if I will even be taking the test. With the one last idea I had that was productive gone, it seemed I had no solution.

Yet as quarantine goes on, I have decided to take a new mindset. It’s unsure how long the situation will continue, so I might as well attempt to not take it for granted. During the school year, this plethora of free time would have been all that I wanted.

Every time I begin to get stressed about not “doing enough”, I try to remind myself that these are uncertain times, and relaxing is acceptable, and even needed sometimes.