When shelter in place orders were first introduced to communities around the world, it came as no surprise that millions of quarantined people picked up hobbies to help pass the time. With so much free time on their hands, people from all over were scrambling to find ways to fill up those moments. 

A lot of popular hobbies included making clay earrings, embroidering and finding new ways to exercise. Harding students shared how they tried different activities to help them take up time over the past six months.

Junior Grace Woodward chose to make bracelets. She said that while interning with a church over the summer, she was inspired by a girl in her youth group who wore easy-to-make jewelry. 

“It was so much easier than I had expected, and it made for a stress-free way I could make art while hanging out with friends,” Woodward said.

Also creatively-inclined, senior Anna Potter picked up doodling, sketching and watercolor for the first time in years. 

“I got married right before school started, so I sketched out images I wanted at my wedding — like table settings and flower arrangements — so that was a really cool way to help my wedding come to life,” Potter said.

   Some students, like junior Taylor Branum and sophomore Autumn French, have even turned their quarantine activities into small businesses. French (@fortherecordartstudio) paints on vinyl records, decorating them with social club colors. Branum makes stickers using Procreate, creating a variety of styles, quotes and illustrations

“Over quarantine, [I] started a new hobby of drawing on my iPad and using Procreate,” Branum said on her Instagram (@taybstickers). “I’ve designed some things so far and plan on drawing more in my free time.”

While some people picked up painting and others picked up crafting, senior Catie Stacy shared that she picked up a new book almost every week. Books like “Love is a Mixtape,” “Normal People” and “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen” were just a few of Stacy’s favorites she read and reread throughout the months. 

“Thinking about everything going on in the world causes so much stress and anxiety,” Stacy said. “Reading a book really helps me escape the uncomfortable feelings of change.”

These Harding students shared some simple ways they were able to escape the stress of everyday life, even if it was for a short period of time. Hobbies helped them stay grounded and allowed them to maintain control of parts of their life while so much change was happening.  Deciding to pick up a new hobby during a period of so much uncertainty helped bring peace to millions of people.