It’s 40 days into shelter in place, and the days just breeze by. I feel like my clock is running at twice the speed as usual. One moment I’m doing homework at 2 p.m.,. and by the time I’m done and ready to get a bite to eat, it’s 8 p.m.
At this point, I’ve run out of new ideas to keep myself entertained. I’ve turned to movies, TV, sports highlights and rewinds, books, magazines and video games to keep myself sane.
When they say humans are social creatures, I never really bought into that until now. I use FaceTime to call anyone who would listen to me ramble about how boring quarantine is. I actually look forward to Zoom meetings because it gives me some type of interaction with the rest of society.
I’ve learned to appreciate a lot of things during quarantine, but one thing that has never been more appreciated until now is sports. I used to roll my eyes at the months of March through April because sports are pretty boring around this time.
It’s the time where the NBA games don’t matter, and players elect to sit out. After the opening week in the MLB, the hype around the games goes away. After the first two rounds of March Madness, the games don’t get as exciting.
I’ve also been watching replays of iconic sports games and moments. So far I’ve watched the 2010 NBA Finals game 7, Kobe Bryant’s 81 point game, Super Bowl XVIII and Pacquiao versus Margarito.
While sports are not on, I have been watching a mix of Netflix, Hulu, Disney and ESPN Plus, Tubi or anything that has free movies on it. There are a ton of movies and shows that I didn’t think I would watch or thought existed that are really good.
I just finished “Uncorked,” which is a movie on Netflix about an aspiring wine sommelier who has to choose between chasing his dream or taking over the family business. Another great TV show to watch on Netflix is “Gentefied,” a TV comedy-drama about chasing the American dream in an era of gentrification.
I’ve been listening to tons of music as well. I’m usually a rap type of guy, but my girlfriend put me on to a few R&B artists that have been in my recent rotation. Snoh Aalegra, Jhene Aiko and Pink Sweat$ are all great artists I recommend if you want to go the R&B route.
Making a playlist is not usually my thing, but now I have a playlist for just about everything. Sleep time, eat time, party time– you name it, I have a playlist for it.
I’m pretty much over video games at this point. I’ve played everything from NBA 2K, Madden, GTA V, Call of Duty and even Fortnite. It gets pretty boring after the third or fourth time hitting the power button on my XBOX One.
I’m finding some success in reading books that I never read. Right now, I’m reading “Shook Ones” by Charlamagne Tha God. It’s a great book about how to deal with anxiety and stress in the social media world, and it makes it even better that it is relevant now.
On top of books, I ordered a sports magazine lot off of ebay which consisted of Slam Magazine, ESPN magazine and Sports Illustrated. It’s crazy to look at some of the sports icons back in 1999 and seeing where they are now.
School has been going better than I expected it to go. I thought that a sudden shift in how we learn could be a negative, but so far it’s going well.
Zoom conferences are new, but I’d much rather have Zoom than not meet at all. I’m getting a chance to really figure out how to study and work on my own.
I miss a lot of things. I miss going to the movies. I miss getting dinner with family and friends. I miss waking up early and going to campus. I miss watching the sports and other live events that were on TV regularly.
But if it’s one thing I know, it’s that life will get back to normal. Whether it’s soon or later, life will get back to what it normally is. We will be able to go outside once again and have the human interaction we are all craving.
But as it stands, wash your hands, stay inside and follow the instructions we need to follow, so we can all return to our normal lives. Stay safe and remember to flatten the curve.
Nathan Canilao is the sports editor of The Express. Follow him @nathancanilao.
