Quarantine is no exception to enjoying nature and the ecosystems that enclose us. Although a lot of social interactions between friends have been significantly hindered as a result of the current pandemic, this opens up more time that you can spend for yourself. Activities such as taking a walk, biking, exercising, etc. are activities that can be centered around oneself rather than their peers. These activities are starting to become more and more common because of the isolation many of us have been experiencing as a result of not meeting friends at school. I’ve recently become more interested in the environment that surrounds me by gardening and getting fresh air daily. Every afternoon, going outside to water my plants and plant seeds in flower pots is the highlight of my day and something that I look forward to the most. A little each day, I watch my plants until finally, the seed germinates and unleashes a beautiful sprout. 

 A little fresh air is important to relieve your stress that you experience from academics and is a great way to take a break and enjoy the world that we all live in. It is essential that we take advantage of this perfect opportunity we have during the current pandemic to explore nature as usually during the school year, this is not something available because of factors such as time wasted towards car rides to school, etc. 

Something new introduced this year with the current remote learning plan is the amount of screen time that everyone experiences. A school day is around 5 hours and because of the current situation we are in, students have to spend around 5 hours each day staring at their screen. In the interest of improving our mental health, I urge all of us to designate time out of each day to get some fresh air and take our eyes off of a laptop’s screen. Make sure you treat your body as a seed and allow it to grow just like plants.