Making the most of unlimited free time in quarantine

by Emma Fischer| feature editor

Quarantine has opened up more free time than students care to admit, and although some students are taking this time to get ahead on work or play video games or stay up until three in the morning watching tiktoks, some are using this time to find new talents.

Junior Gabriella Rivera-Vega has taken this time to mess with watercolors and paints. 

“I used to despise paint,” Rivera-Vega said. “You can cover up mistakes with paint, but not watercolors. It expands because the water travels.”

Rivera-Vega has also taken the time to mess with crayon art. It’s where artists will hot glue crayons to the top of canvases and melt the crayons with a blow dryer.

“I’ve also melted crayons. I got crayon wax on my wall. It just happened. I wanted to do the rainbow rain thingy,” Rivera-Vega said. 

Junior Bryanna Carroll has also taken up art during her free time. 

“I have learned how to draw. I’ve never been the type to draw. It’s never interested me what so ever and I’ve never been able to draw. One day I was like I’ll try I guess and it came out really nice surprisingly,” Carroll said. 

She had drawn before, but with school and band, she hadn’t been able to take it up. This has given her the chance to.

“I’ve been drifting from it, just because of school and stuff. I draw whatever comes to mind. Or I’ll look at some ideas on Pinterest and get inspiration from that,” Carrol said. 

Although she had taken up new fine arts, Carroll still wishes that she could do more.

“Usually I just read and write, but sometimes I will go bother my parents just cause it’s funny. I would love to go out and just see people. I never thought I would say that, but just to know that the rest of humanity still exists,” Carroll said. 

Senior Emma Stoddard has touched a paintbrush or stretched anything. Instead, she had picked up knitting tools and yarn.

“I’m knitting a blanket! Well I had all this knitting stuff from a long time ago when I was into it, but I’ve never made anything before, so I decided to get some yarn that actually works for my loom and make something! It was initially going to be a scarf, but I had so much fun that I made it a bigger project,” Stoddard said. 

Not even running out of yarn will stop her from finishing her projects.

“Well, I ran out of yarn, but I’m gonna order more soon! And I still have to learn how to put two fragments together. I’m mostly gonna make a lot of blankets but I might also try hats and scarves and maybe some other stuff, but I’m not sure what,” Stoddard said.

The weather isn’t cold outside, sure, but Stoddard isn’t making the blankets for herself.

“The pink and grey blanket I’m working on now is for my grandma. I’m also planning on making one for my sister! I might make one for myself, but mostly I’ll make them as gifts,” Stoddard said. 

Students have taken extra time to find extra hobbies and activities that they have loved. Some of them are gifts and some are just fun things that keep students occupied while in quarantine. 

“That’s what quarantine has done to me,” Rivera-Vega said. 

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