Cut yourself a break: Pandemics aren’t supposed to be fulfilling

In the next week, I’m going to learn French and also shorthand and take a few online courses and clean out my camera roll and downloaded music and listen to all these podcasts and watch the TV shows everyone’s been recommending and read all the articles I’ve had bookmarked for ages and hey, have you heard about the latest Grimes album?

Oh, I’m also going to learn how to meditate and really take some me time, you know, get in touch with myself.

With the constant stream of infection updates and death tolls pouring out of the news media, it’s natural to need a way to relax. But as soon as one tries to find a way to de-stress, one is met with a similar barrage of content.

“Books To Make Your Isolation Feel A Little Less Lonely.” “Pitchfork’s Recommendations for Music to Ease Self-Isolation.” “The Podcasts to Listen to While You’re Social-Distancing.” “What to Watch, Read and Listen To During Your Coronavirus Self-Quarantine.” The list of lists goes on and on and on. You could spend more time reading lists of what movies to watch than you’d spend actually watching those movies.

And that’s not the only thing the Internet writ large wants you to do. From meditation to yoga, online courses to creative writing, there are endless strangers telling you how you can and should feel better.

These articles, while well-intentioned, miss one critical point. In the attempt to help people stay occupied, we end up overloaded with content. When our world abounds with so much cultural richness and opportunity for self-improvement, it feels somehow backwards to be bored.

But social distancing is, to put it bluntly, kind of boring. As much as I have loved discovering new podcasts and trying out new recipes, there’s a limit to my ability to occupy myself while stuck in the same few thousand square feet (excluding the occasional walk around the neighborhood). Trying to make relaxation feel productive only amplifies my distress when all I feel like doing is putting on a bathrobe and feeling a bit dejected. My failure to get through everything, improve myself, be cultured and mentally healthy and physically fit, feels especially reprobate at a time when I’m also unable to be productive in the traditional sense, cut off from work and school. And that’s not to mention those for whom such productivity is truly impossible, occupied as they are by the responsibilities of caring for small children or sick relatives.

Relaxation is meant to be just that: relaxing. And boredom is a part of life, especially a life that is increasingly confined. So to add to the endless Internet advice pile: stop listening to other people’s advice. Do whatever you feel like doing, and don’t do whatever you don’t. A pandemic isn’t meant to be a time for self-improvement.

Sadie Bograd is a high school student in Lexington, Kentucky.

This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 1:46 PM.