At first, the idea of having an extra week of spring break sounded promising, but as this pandemic started worsening it became clear that it was not something that was going to last only a week. As days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, and my summer days were starting to combine into our quarantine days, it left me with one question: what am I going to do all summer? Sure, I am not necessarily the type of person who enjoys going places, unless it is mandatory, but the idea of having a cozy night-in does not sound as pleasing when there is a pandemic keeping you from leaving your driveway. 

One thing I found myself doing often is staring at my phone screen for hours on end. I would engage in an array of activities that include (but are not limited to) watching someone play Life Is Strange 2 on YouTube, going through random home rental sites, as well as listening to my playlists of endless music. And not to mention I would also find that I would have a massive headache afterwards. 

Although going out in public was very frowned upon throughout the summer (and still is now) my family and I did manage to get out of our house in very socially distanced ways this summer. Something we did, many times a week was going on aimless car rides. This has made it to the top of my list of favorite things to do because when we would go on these drives it would bring out the comedian in all of us. Our senses of humor are not very limited so we would laugh the entire time at everything. At times when our laughter would die down, I would just put on my headphones and listen to music. Definitely some of my most happy memories were made during our mini trips.  

Other minor things that occurred over the summer: I got my braces off after almost three years of having them on, painted the walls of my room, finally got myself to shower my dogs on my own, and realized I had a much larger obsession with Abba than I thought I did. 

Even though this summer was not ideal, compared to past summers, it was an interesting experience. I think I have learned and done a lot of things that I would not have thought about or done if this summer had gone differently. But I also believe that if we pay attention to how people are struggling in the middle of this pandemic and stay home as much as possible while wearing our masks when in public, we can maybe go do all the other things we wanted to do this summer in 2021.