#LifeWithout: Going Out

By Cynthia Martinez

Something I’ve learned to live without throughout this pandemic is the urge to go out. 

Before the pandemic almost every weekend my family and I would go out to eat, or to the mall, or just walking downtown. We would take those quick trips to Walgreens or Dollar Tree where you’re just there to get one thing- but you still take your time because you’re just happy to get out of your house.

When the coronavirus started I couldn’t really do that anymore, so I was constantly bored at home. It didn’t really hit me that we were in a pandemic until the weekend came:

I’m not talking about the weekend from when we got out of school. No, that weekend we went out and bought food that was gonna last us a week. Or The weekend after that, when we went out and bought enough food to last us a couple of weeks. I’m talking about the next-next weekend, when we had literally nothing to do but stay in the house and watch TV.

I didn’t mind at first, I could finally finish the shows that I was watching, read the library books that I checked out and write about how my quarantine was going. But it got to the point where I was even tired of getting on social media. I was telling myself in my head “I wouldn’t mind going out”, I even got tired of sleeping 

There were days where I would stand at the window and just look outside and say “I wish covid never happened. I couldn’t even go on quick trips because a lot of stores were limiting how many people could come in the stores, and on top of that we didn’t have masks for everyone in my family yet, so only my parents could go out and buy stuff.

One day I, after weeks of being stuck in my house doing nothing, I looked at my room. It wasn’t just a mess – it was a catastrophe. My clothes were everywhere but the drawers, stuffed animals disorganized, sheos out of their boxes.My bed wasn’t even made. I normally don’t make bed I just organized my pillows and put a cover over my bed 

I started with my stuffed animals. I organized them, from smallest to biggest. It looked so beautiful l knew my sisters or my dog would come in  jump all over them and mess them but, I didn’t mind because that would mean I would have to organize them again to give me something to do. 

Then, I Folded my clothes in a way that fit all of my shirts in one drawer, all of my pants in another, and sweats , and shorts in a third. Turns out I have more shirts than I thought and also organized my closet color, coordinated my hoodies, long sleeves and dresses. 

Something else that I have been doing to keep myself busy is decorating my room. I put up some drawings, pictures, posters, even bought some command strips so that I can hang up my book bags, landliers, hats, scarfs, slim bags, etc. I’ve ordered some led lights to give my room a little bit of color. I ordered a Mexican flag so that my room can have a little bit of my culture. I bought a book shelf for my stuffed animals, and got another for my notebooks, books, and other school supplies 

Reinventing my room helps keep my mind off going out because one it’s saves me a lot of money and I’m more focused on keeping my room nice and clean instead of buying a shirt for 20 dollars , but I make my bed now and clean other parts of the house too. It’s a much healthier distraction than playing UNO with my family. Our games get too competitive.(let”s just say my dad had to sleep on the couch). I’m learning new dances for TikTok videos, which is a real workout. I’ve done a lot of writing too, about this whole situation, and about other things like the school year, and fiction, my feelings and opinions towards certain situations for example the black lives movement, the search for Vanessa Guillen, and lastly how i have been feeling about being in quarantine. 

The only going out I’ve done is to work. Not too long ago I got a job at Mcdonald’s. I used to work five days a week, from 6am-2pm. I love my job, I really do. It not only keeps me busy, but also makes me tired, to the point that I just want to sleep all day, 

These things have kept my urges to go out to a minimum. I realize that I don’t have to go out every weekend. Now it’s just enough to go outside and walk around, or just sit on the steps of my apartment and watch the sky or be on my phone, but mostly look at the sky and see the clouds moving.

Now that some stores are open I have been out but not as much as you would think. Before Covid I would’ve spent so much time at the mall looking at a bunch of clothes or accessories and end up coming out with either one item or nothing at all. Now I just get what I want and go home. I don’t spend too much time at a store or try anything on.

Seeing how much has changed from being in quarantine for 4 months is very odd, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m kinda glad that my urge to go out are no longer an issue. I used to feel that the only way for me to have fun and make memories. But I made some pretty good memories at home, too.

I’m still decorating my room and organizing my stuff so it can look neat. I’m still writing a whole lot more, I’ve been getting a little lazy on doing the dishes, but I’m getting back to it. I’m still making Tik Toks but it’s getting a little harder to make content. It’s almost like everyone does the same thing.

I’m only working on the weekends, which is fine. Right now what’s keeping me extremely busy is school. As long as I’m not going out to a random store wasting my time by browsing then I’m fine.