So we are all out of school for over a month and most of us are cooped up in our houses a lot due to social distancing.  We have school work to do but not as much as usual so we have a lot of free time. Many students are probably like, “Yay! We get to do absolutely nothing for a month”.  But this is not the correct attitude to have.

I’m sure a lot of you Greenwood students are keeping yourselves very busy with plenty of work to do or hobbies of some sort.  And a lot of you may be doing things like playing video games or watching Netflix. But there are also a lot of you who probably don’t have much to do and may be bored. And this also goes for those who are happy with doing nothing at all because you guys should do something more energetic or brain exercising.  

So here are a couple of ideas for keeping yourselves busy during our time out of school for the Coronavirus.  First of all, all of you guys need to make sure to get all of your school work done so that we don’t have to go farther into the summer.  And after that, you had better do whatever chores you are given if any. But i’m sure we all have some free time. So in your free time, if you have nothing else to do, I have a few suggestions.  

1) First of all, physical fitness

In JROTC, we put physical fitness as one of our top priorities.  We believe physical fitness should be a part of our lives. Physical fitness keeps the individual stronger mentally and physically.  In ROTC we do many physical fitness exercises such as running, push-ups, sit ups and jumping jacks.

Now, I totally understand that many of you may not want to actually go outside to exercise because you want to avoid being around other people as much as possible.  But there are plenty of indoor exercises that you can do that will be just as beneficial. Some of my most recommended exercises are push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks.

I would recommend starting with about 100 of each every day and then moving up as you go. And for you guys that do want to get outside running is one of the best exercises you can do.  And if you don’t want to run then walking is always good for you too.

2) Read a book

I get it: a lot of you hate reading, but reading is extremely good for your eyes and brain.  I believe that one of the main reasons people don’t like to read is that they watch too much TV or play too many video games which makes reading more uninteresting to them. 

But being a big-time reader, I believe that if anyone tries shutting off the electronics for a while and getting into a good book, they will become more interested in reading and find books to be really awesome.  Now I also understand that not all books are interesting, so I recommend reading interesting books or books that at least look interesting.

I know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I don’t recommend someone who is new to book reading to pick up Shakespeare.  My personal favorite genres of books are fantasy, sci-fi and thrillers. And yes I do recommend fiction for new readers. 

3) Play some games 

So I’m sure a lot of you have either a deck of cards or maybe some board games or both.  So as long as you have someone to play with, games are a great idea. If you don’t have any board games or cards, you can still play multi-person games like chess on your phone.  That is at least better than playing by yourself. I’m sure some of you have games you can play in the yard like corn hole or basketball. These are also great ideas that will get you out of the house.