Being home 24/7 isn’t the greatest thing. Families say they’ll get to spend more time together, but it doesn’t always work. Students think they’ll get more productive, but they end up procrastinating more. So far the majority of people asked will say they’d rather be in school and have everything go back to normal.

With the quarantine that recently hit, most students thought it was going to be a really fun break, considering it as an add-on to spring break. However, what students seem to have not expected, was the plague of boredom in their lives from being stuck at home. They’ve had to try and find new hobbies they can do at home to help themselves through their severe cabin fever.

“I take a lot of naps and do self-portrait photography to pass time. Recently, I’ve been baking pastries for my family because it’s something I really like to do,” said sophomore Amber Lehman. “I’ve also started doing embroidery, which hurts my fingers, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Most of having so little to do is because nobody can see their friends. They’re by themselves at home for the next month and a half. People struggle with having no interaction with others because it’s what keeps them sane and able to lead a normal life and function. Going from seeing best friends every day to not being allowed to for a month isn’t a normal or easy adjustment for people. Because of that, people are getting really lonely too, which is causing them to not be in good moods.

“Being away from my friends is definitely an adjustment. I’m a very social person, and I need social interaction to thrive, so currently I’m really not thriving,” said sophomore Peter Meyer.

Not being able to see people and adjusting to not have very much to do has seemed to have taken its toll on people’s mental health. Not being able to do things they loved to do is hitting hard, and people have been in really depressive moods. People are anxious about the quarantine expanding every day, and that leads to them being upset about their lives and having nothing to do.

“I feel like I can say this for myself and a lot of other people, but we have so little to do that it feels like we’re being consumed by our own thoughts. It could be affecting people’s mental health because there’s so little we can do to distract ourselves,” said sophomore Kaden Keller.

The lockdown on Illinois has been affecting people day by day, and students are doing what they can to stay entertained in the whole quarantine. According to students, people are trying to make their mental health a priority, and with that, they are trying to get into new hobbies to keep themselves distracted from the lack of social interaction.