Lessons Learned from 2020
As a Class of 2020 College Graduate
For me, 2020 would’ve been a year of great change even if there hadn’t been a global pandemic. It was the year I graduated college, moved states, moved into my first apartment, and started a “big girl” job.
Going through these big life changes all while the world changed dramatically due to COVID-19 made 2020 a year full of learning to deal with unfamiliarity and uncertainty. Here are my most insightful takeaways I learned from adapting to post-college life during this insane year:
1. Being mentally and/or physically engaged in the present is super important for maintaining mental health.
There was a seemingly endless source of worry from 2020, from politics and social unrest to heartbreaking daily COVID-19 statistics. These public sources of worry could easily pile on top of heightened personal struggles, anxieties, and lifestyle changes to create a constant sense of dread. Additionally, the previously mundane, spontaneous interactions that could offer me a distraction were gone: I wasn’t able to run into a friend or co-worker and strike up conversation, there were no walks to and from meetings, no opportunity to grab a coffee, etc. I also found that working from home offered me much less of a schedule; not having simple things like a commute or in-office lunch break made me responsible for structuring my own time, which meant I could lose huge chunks of time to worrying or consuming media. I didn’t realize how impactful these interactions and schedules were until they were gone, and I found myself stuck with my own anxious thoughts for abnormally long periods of time.
I realized that I needed to be much more proactive, creative, and self-disciplined about finding ways to keep my mind from wandering. I knew that plenty of psychology backed up my intuition that I needed to stay engaged in the present rather than worrying about the future. I found that I was able to stay engaged in the present most easily if I was working on an enjoyable and achievable goal, usually one related to a hobby or exercise. Regulating my exposure to news and social media, doing mindfulness exercises, and practicing gratitude also greatly helped keep me grounded. This was definitely a challenging to execute at first, since I had to figure out how to create self-regulated structure and routine. This leads right into my second takeaway…
2. Creating and maintaining enjoyable but organized structure is incredibly valuable.
The biggest negative impact I felt from the stay-at-home orders and closures was the loss of structure and external sources of routine. Pre-COVID activities that provided structured environments for hobbies and personal improvement such as classes, sports leagues, conferences, etc. were gone or turned virtual. This made it much harder to feel engaged in hobbies and personal projects, as I had to rely on self discipline to not only plan my own goals and progress but also motivate myself to do them. As mentioned before, workplace routines such as commutes and social lunch breaks provided routine markers throughout the day, whereas working from home my days blended into an ambiguous lump if I didn’t intentionally structure my time.
I had to learn how to create my own structure and develop new routines and approaches to hobbies and scheduling. I ended up creating schedules for myself, literally blocking out time in my calendar for solo activities such as eating, taking a walk, hobbies, and bedtime which would’ve seemed inflexible and pedantic before the pandemic. This turned out to be very useful though, especially if I pre-planned days so that I would have a routine to follow even on days when I felt listless. I realized it was also helpful to add more detailed structure to my hobbies and personal projects, to make them feel more rewarding. I set quantifiable goals and planned out how I would achieve them instead of keeping things vague e.g. planning to run a half marathon rather than just planning to keep running as a hobby. This made my hobbies more rewarding in isolation and helped me self-motivate.
The above points are general lessons I learned about myself and how I should cope with changes in routine. Below are some musings on specific “quarantine activities” I’ve taken up or revived over the course of 2020.
Exercise: I’ve always relied on exercise as a source of mental health stability and free endorphins. In 2020 exercise has become an even bigger source of enjoyment. I definitely had to switch up the physical activities I do so that I could adhere to social distancing. Instead of dance classes and weightlifting, I switched to running, at-home gymnastics, and tennis. I had done all of these activities before but hadn’t invested as much time into them, and it’s been quite fun to pick them back up again. I’ve noticed that I see faster improvements for these activities than my usual ones, since I haven’t hit any performance plateaus at these revived activities.
Hobbies: Throughout college, I dropped nearly all my hobbies other than exercise due to lack of time or access. So exploring pastimes and creative outlets has been a generally new post-graduation experience rather than one caused solely by COVID. Now that I don’t live in dorms and have adequate space, I’ve gotten more into growing houseplants.
I’ve also been trying to inject creativity into everyday responsibilities to make them feel more like pastimes than chores. Cooking, baking, and home organization fall into this category. Visual art, bullet journaling, and pen palling are other activities I’ve taken up. Pen palling arose out of wanting to support USPS and moving away from all my friends and family; it’s become a regular activity that’s a fun mix of relaxing arts & crafts and keeping in touch with people. I took painting classes as a kid and have always loved looking at visual art, so I decided to try creating my own art. I motivated and challenged myself by making art pieces as part of Christmas gifts for friends.
Community Engagement/Service: COVID has created unprecedented need in communities everywhere. Non-profit and mutual aid organizations need more help and resources than ever. Food banks are under lots of duress and most metropolitan areas have COVID mutual aid organizations anyone can easily help out at (e.g. San Francisco’s COVID mutual aid organization). I did a lot of volunteering during college, even serving a 300-hour AmeriCorps service term, and I really wanted to continue this and find organizations to serve through after moving to San Francisco. Community service is a crucial way to give back to and help others, but also greatly increases my personal awareness and sense of purpose. Helping and listening to others gets my thoughts off my own issues and helps me realize how privileged I am. Virtual and socially distanced volunteering is readily available. I’ve seen many community groups have volunteers call others in the community or drop off groceries/supplies. Organizations that work on education and workplace development have also gone virtual, teaching classes and facilitating mentorships online (e.g. Code Tenderloin). No matter where you are, there are impactful ways you can help your community, and COVID has greatly intensified the need for help.
Embracing the Virtual-ness: After the initial shock and disappointment of sheltering in place and working from home, I noticed there are definitely upsides to my new COVID lifestyle. Not commuting saves huge amounts of time and driving/parking stress, and working from home in general enables greater time flexibility. If I’m diligent in structuring my time, I’ve found I can get a lot more done in a day on both work and leisure fronts. When daylight became scarce, I could go for a run or tennis rally during the daylight of the 9–5 workday and make up the work at night. The online format of classes, conferences, and community groups is certainly less immersive and engaging, but also offers much greater accessibility. Geographic limitations are gone, so I was able to attend many virtual gatherings that would have been logistically impossible if they were held in-person. I’ve been very grateful that COVID happened in an age where video calling exists. I’ve had genuine fun video calling friends and doing virtual activities such as an online white elephant gift exchange or playing games.
I would like to acknowledge that I’ve been very lucky throughout 2020. I’ve experienced minimal death, personal loss, and work life disturbances from COVID. I’m also in the lowest risk group as far as health concerns and had a relatively few obstacles when adapting to the stay-at-home lifestyle. I’m incredibly grateful for my situation and my heart hurts for all those that aren’t as fortunate.
I’ve also had days where I do absolutely nothing or just play video games… I got a Nintendo Switch Lite right at the start of COVID and it’s been a lifeline. It’s definitely okay to purely rest in such tiring and traumatic times.
I’ve written about my college graduation and moving experience as well as apartment-hunting during COVID-19: here and here, respectively.
