Playing Through a Pandemic: Maintaining our Passions During Isolation

We have heard it time and time again: “these are unprecedented times”. And through these truly extraordinary times, we have been forced to become innovators and learners to new practices. Suddenly shopping, travelling, and educating - activities of our everyday lives - became an estranged routine. But what about our hobbies, ambitions and passions? For many, quarantine has provided us time to pick up new hobbies or perhaps rediscover old ones. For others, opportunity was lost and pursuing what we loved became a challenge.

I, like millions of other students around the world, began my 9th grade year during the global pandemic. This was demoralizing since something you look forward to the most in high school is meeting new people and indulging in new experiences; it was obviously not an ideal way to start high school. However, I thought that I would try to make the most out of these circumstances.

Our world was rapidly becoming a virtual reality, socialization being no different. My school community was fortunate enough to be able to coordinate virtual clubs and extracurriculars this year, and I saw this as the light at the end of the tunnel. Desperate for any sort of interaction with other people I just wanted to join every club offered. Of course, I can’t be at multiple places at once - although virtual meetings have made that somewhat of a possibility - so I had to pick and choose; I started to think this year wouldn’t turn out so boring after all.

One major aspect of the year was being able to pursue instrumental music. I have been playing the flute for three years now, so continuing music through secondary school was an easy choice. Like any other extracurricular, we pursued music through a screen; this was one of the largest obstacles to overcome this year. Not only was it a challenge to develop safe ways to continue to do what we love, but to also adapt to those ways. Every week, fellow band members would attend Zoom meetings for rehearsal. Despite not being able to hear each other play and not being able to work collaboratively, as we should, being a band, having an open mind and being creative through fun activities has greatly maintained our community and has kept us in good spirits. Performances and concerts are also a significant element to pursuing a musical education, and it’s something that music students look forward to. This year, as expected, organizing a musical event was yet another hurdle to leap over; a task that required creativity and restructuring. But we persisted. And through trial and error we were able to perform virtually.

From being cooped up inside so much, the pandemic has forced me to spend more time outside and has reintroduced me to outdoor photography, with the help of my photography club at school. Through photography, I have developed a newfound love for flowers and sunsets; it has made me recognize the beauty Mother Nature has to offer.

Fantasy novels have been another wonderful escape from reality these days, and though reading is not a reclaimed hobby of mine, I’ve been able to discover so many new authors over the past year. Lore by Alexandra Bracken and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern are two excellent standalone fantasy books that I highly recommend and have been two of my favourite sources of escapism.

Ultimately, I knew that pondering on what could’ve been of my first year of high school would have done me no good. Instead, I looked at what can be, and I can say with confidence that this mindset has paid off. We can’t change the past, but we do indeed have some control of our future; your perception is your reality. My year could have been a whole lot worse than it turned out to be, but I decided to play off my passions by finding and creating opportunities for myself within and outside of school. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it was being resilient and perseverant. As I make my way into grade 10, I still see hope and potential.

There will always be two ways of looking at things, it just depends on which way you choose.