First of all, I am just an 18-year-old incoming college student who is trying to make my mental health as stable and healthy as possible and I would like to share my story here. 

In this time of pandemic where things are set to different kind of "new normal", a teenager like me— who goes to school 10 hours a day every weekdays, work every Saturdays, worship and serve in church ministry every Sundays, and me who was extremely busy and barely only has nights to stay in our house (just to rest), quarantine set up became difficult for me. I am not used to study all day inside my room, not go to work and have my Sunday services in front of technologies— basically everything is new to me. 

Not being able to do the things I usually do before drastically affected my mental health. I overthinked a lot, cried myself to sleep at night, destroyed my body clock, binged eat (or sometimes not eat at all), and all the ways to destroy my well-being. You see, everything you do will always bring an effect to your mental health, and what happened to mine was extremely unpleasant. I gained weight, became irritated, lazy, unproductive (which is REALLY not me before), had suicidal thoughts, and other unhelpful things to make me a better individual. 

But last week of May, I grew tired of everything and tried to set a different perspective. I enrolled myself in an online course (for free) which will help me in college as I take Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I do advance study and I can say I learned a lot already. I had my social media detox because that is where I mostly got my unhealthy thoughts from. I also engaged myself in exercises (note that I’m not trying to get slimmer but to make myself fit because my BMI is already normal). I can even almost (work in progress) do splits now compared before whereas my body was so stiff (yay biggest flex)! And the best thing I did was that I tried to connect again and re-learn my hobbies and what I am most passionate about that I failed to allot time before because I was so busy with life. Those were read novel books, write poems in this specific app, watch kdramas and reorganize my room and stuffs. I applied in several organizations that are related to Anti-Bullying, Mental Health and Youth Empowerment Advocacy. 

I just want to tell everyone that these things are not applicable to all. It’s okay if your quarantine set up is not always productive. Because in this time of pandemic, it’s not about how productive you are but how much you strive to take care and keep yourself healthy and safe. I am the type of person who is uncomfortable of doing nothing so I kept myself busy and for you, my dear readers, it doesn’t matter what did you achieve during this time but how much you handle your well-being and as long as  you are healthy. 

Opening myself up in different angle and perspective made me a whole lot better. This pandemic is an opportunity for me to reflect about my life and remind myself to not forget my hobbies and passion even if I am busy building my future. I am happier and I am contented to what I have right now. In few days, I will have my online classes and my mental health is now prepared. 

This story is kinda general for my almost 6 months of staying inside our house so I will make different posts for each category (relationship with my family and friends, my spiritual life, etc)

Thank you for reading, feel free to message me if you have prayer requests and keep safe!