In light of us all being shuttered inside like the introverts many of us are thanks to the Coronavirus, I’m here to share a few things you can do to beat boredom. I spent the first half of my break contemplating existence and burying myself in the regret of only willingly attending two of my friends birthday parties in the past five years. Then one day, specifically last Thursday, as my finger hovered above my Playstation 4’s power button, I had an epiphany. The acronym “LCWW” sprung into my head and I’ve followed it ever since.

L stands for Live stream. You don’t need a channel on Twitch or YouTube to make it happen, just a phone made in the past 8 years and an Instagram account. I’ve managed to create my own mini-podcast series “The Crock Pot”, with my longtime friend and fellow OCSA Senior, Nayeli Rodriguez Cappas. Through The Crock Pot, we do anything from play music together, crack jokes, debate conspiracy theories and brainstorm “what if” scenarios. To us, its not much different from how we would talk in person, but to our friends its a place to escape while the toilet paper restocks and President Trump tells the nation about the “China virus.” It’s never very long thanks to Instagram’s one-hour limit on lives streams, but that works out perfectly; my phone dies a little quicker after every stream, but its worth it to make myself and other people laugh a little. We try not to stress ourselves out by setting a weekly schedule, so while The Crock Pot’s episodes are few and far between, they are genuine and unscripted.

C is for Contacting friends and family. This ties right back to L, for a few reasons. Being shut in is one thing, but being shut in and lonely is a whole other ball game. Take this time to reach out to people who mean the world to you, but have seemed light years away. They most likely feel just as stressed out as you.  I just send people a simple “Don’t get sick” message and that does two things: 1.) It lets people know I’m thinking about them and 2.) If they are sick, they would probably say so and then we would have a conversation about it. My social rings have, thankfully, been kept virus free.

The first W stands for: Watch shows or movies. Most of you have probably already seen everything there is to see on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus. If you’re in that boat like most of my family, then you’ve probably resorting to watching grass grow. On the other side of the coin, I have found myself rooted in the YouTube world. When I’m not live streaming or talking to people, I’m watching videos. The variety of content has kept me going. Interested in video games? There’s a community for that outside of the more well-known channels such as PewDiePie and Markiplier. Interested in mythology? I’ve recently discovered charming channel known as Overly Sarcastic Productions, and it has just what you need. Interested in music? There is an entire section of YouTube for cover artists, or artists who cover already existing music, like Annapantsu, the one and only Jonathan Young, and Caleb Hyles. If you want varied sources of art, check out Button Poetry for poetry or Markcrilley and Butch Hartman for art and character designs.

The second W is for: Workout. The best way to cure boredom when your WiFi cuts out in spurts between midday and 9 p.m. like mine does is to get ripped. In my case, its more likely that I’ll get sore and sweaty, but the point stands.  Summer’s just around the corner after all. If the quarantine continues straight through summer, at the very least I can say that I’m rocking a lean body any casual body builder would be proud of. It’s all about willpower. Speaking of power, working out is a great way to spend time and exhaust yourself to keep the electric bill low. Keep in mind that there are four categories of workouts: aerobic (better understood as endurance), strength, flexibility, and balance. A majority of the workout videos you can find online are based in flexibility or strength, but take a look at them all to see which one suits your fancy. A solid site to use is https://go4life.nia.nih.gov/4-types-of-exercise for focus information on each workout type.

I hope LCWW helps you just as much as it has helped me!