I am currently beyond three weeks into my quarantine, and I am beginning to get very bored of my current scenery (my house). Every day seems like the previous, and the only things keeping these days from blending in with each other are my class schedule and my Zoom meetings. So, if it wasn’t for school, I probably couldn’t tell you the day of the week.

I would’ve never imagined spending five months away from Plymouth, because even our summer breaks aren’t that long. I would notice a pattern every summer after my first two spring semesters at Plymouth; it seemed I was happy to be home for a month. After a month I was ready to return to my second home at Plymouth, New Hampshire. Can somebody organize an early start to next semester? Maybe I will start e-mailing the vice president and propose this idea. With all this boredom at my home, I have decided it’s time for a change of scenery.

Next week, after Easter day, I am going to drive five hours south to my sister’s lake house in Lexington, North Carolina, where I can attend my Zoom classes on a boat rather than in my bed. It’s weird that I normally would dread a five-hour drive, but with the lack of events occurring in my life I look forward to sitting in a car and speeding down south with my music on and windows down. I guess you could say my tolerance for fun has gone down significantly. I am very excited to go on this isolated vacation to my sister’s house, as I finally have something planned during this quarantine to look forward to. We plan on seeing the Great Smoky Mountains, which include the highest peaks on the East Coast and Appalachian Mountain range, even taller than the peaks of the White Mountains. The activities that one can participate in on a lake seem almost endless, from fishing on a dock to enjoying the warm southern weather on the water.

Motivation can be hard to find in times like this, especially when college students are asked to live a life that in many ways is a complete opposite of the lifestyle they were living before. In Wuhan, China, the city just recently began to lift stay home orders. This was more than 70 days after the order began. With this information I don’t see things returning to normal in the United States until June, but the good news is that things are going to get better. For now, stay healthy, isolated, find your motivation, and if you celebrate Easter, enjoy Easter day.