My Easter Abroad: UK Lockdown Edition
Three weeks into lockdown and, lo-and-behold, the sun’s out during this Easter weekend! With this very pleasant weather, I have decided that it is time to do something interesting indoors (obviously) and channel my inner Mary Berry – brownie time!
Since eating in a restaurant is out of the picture nowadays #stayhome, I have been exploring the magnificent culinary world in the kitchen. Although my amateur skill definitely does not deserve an honorable Paul Hollywood Handshake but possibly a Gordon Ramsay frown, it is still a delicious gulp of rich gooeyness.
After frying my brain working on my project this past week, I have given myself a little breather this Easter from dissertation and unleashed my creativity. Now that Easter egg hunt has to happen indoor, we figured it would be fun to give our neighbors a little surprise by putting up Easter egg decoration on our windows. Instead of decorating actual eggs, we painted our own version of Easter eggs on papers which are, as you can see, surely unconventional.
It is always delightful to do something lighthearted during this unprecedented times, reminding ourselves to look on the bright sides. Hope that our fun little project can bring you as much laughter as it does for us.
Being a final year Mechanical Engineering student is indeed stressful, I find it essential to balance school work and self-care during this pandemic. At the start of this lockdown, I felt that now having plenty of time on my hands and nothing else to do, I was supposed to spend every second of it to perfect my school work with no excuses. However, this mentality turned out to be unsustainable. Everyone is facing uncertainties under this situation, we should acknowledge the difficulties having to adjust our daily lives so rapidly. From my personal experience, feeling upset or guilty because of not completing a task perfectly or procrastinating can be unhealthy and damaging to our mental health. Productivity guilt could happen to anybody since it is easy to project unrealistic expectations on ourselves to fit everything into our 24-hour schedule. That being said, I find it crucial to set practical and reasonable to-do lists to keep our lives structured. But it is also important to give yourself a break every now and then, you do not need to spend every quarantine second on your work with compromised well-being.
Most importantly, do not forget that the pandemic affects everyone both physically and mentally. If you feel upset or unproductive during this difficult period, please do not beat yourself up or invalidate your feelings! Social media and news bombarding us with ‘breaking news’ every minute can slowly take a toll on your mental health. I find it mentally beneficial to limit my screen time and only read the news twice a day. This way I can still be informed without falling into a pit of despair and fear looking at all those numbers and headlines. Although physical health is of utmost importance, mental health should not be ignored, especially when you are 24/7 alone with your own thoughts nowadays. Please remember that you have absolutely all the right to sometimes feel unmotivated and you are entitled to these emotions.
I understand that you might feel being obliged to make the best out of every second now that we have nothing else to do. We often see people on social media taking up new hobbies or doing home-workouts during lockdown, it is easy to feel underachieved compared to them and the shame of being left behind. We should be easy on ourselves, everyone is fighting with this pandemic differently and appreciate our own effort coping with the ever-changing situation. The world is under a collective life-changing experience, and as an individual, we should embrace the trauma instead of suppressing it through overworking.
As cliché as it sounds, we’re all in this together. Let’s take care of ourselves and our community. You can come out of this quarantine a master chef or Picasso as you may, or you can binge all Shrek movies on Netflix (just like I do). Both are equally appreciable as long as you are looking after your well-being amidst this difficult times. Stay safe and healthy kiddos.