With everything that is happening today, world leaders ordering those to stay at home and don’t go out, I found it very difficult to keep myself indoors these past few weeks. However, over time I found new hobbies that I have picked up over the course of this self-distancing period. These are a few of my new activities that keep me indoors and maybe these will influence you to try them out too.

• Ukulele Lessons

When I was growing up as a kid, the only time I had ever used a ukulele was when I was in elementary school in my Hawaiian studies class or performing at our school’s annual May day. Instead of continuing to learn more about the instrument, I was told to go and learn how to play the piano since my older sister was learning it too. Last year I had my New Year’s resolution to go and learn more about the ukulele, fast forward to now and I got nothing. However since I have a bunch of free time on my hands, my father has been giving me hourly lessons a day on how to play. My father loves the ukulele and most of, if not all, the songs he plays are local songs. I learned a fairly easy song that is great for beginners as well as being able to tell a classic local story of a Hawaiian man who fell in love. The song is titled, “Fate Yanagi,” by Rap Reiplinger who is a famous local comedian back in the days. It is a beautiful song and I highly recommend listening to it.

• Mask Makeover

Another addition that has made its way into my life is the making of masks. As of recently, Gov. Ige and the Hawaii Department of Health and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency created a statewide policy on the use of face masks. Although it is not mandatory to wear a mask outside, my mother and I decided to create homemade face masks for the family. I would like to say that I have had no experience with sewing or anything along the lines of that so this was a first for me. So after a couple of failed mask attempts, I can say that I kinda know how to make masks…as long as my mom is next to me.

• The Card Magician

Everyone loves a good card trick, whether it’s guessing their card or changing the card from red to black, so I figured that I would learn how to do card tricks. There is a video out there on the internet that has Chris Pratt, an American actor, performing a card trick on The Graham Norton Show. The card trick was very interesting as he kept failing every time he guessed what the card was but at the end, Pratt stunned the crowd by revealing the card by smacking a stack of cards out of a person’s hand but having their card stay in their hand. When I saw this, I immediately wanted to learn it. So through intense searching on the internet, I found the tutorial and learned it within a few days, the trick itself is fairly easy and the main part to this trick is to act as if you don’t know what you’re doing which is perfect for me. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve but I still need more time to perfect them before I show them off to my family.

• The Master Builder

As like any other 9-year-old kid, I too was infatuated with Legos, and I had collected many sets from my Christmas and birthday presents. However, one of the biggest requirements to building Lego sets is having time to build and they each set can usually be about an hour and since my parents wanted me to focus on school I put all my unfinished sets in my closet and never touched them… until recently. Since I have a bunch of free time, I dusted off all my unopened Lego sets and went to town. I am currently starting off with my mini Lego statues that are literally tiny Legos and working my way up to the bigger sets. I have to say that building Lego sets while jamming to some music is very much relaxing and can eat up a lot of hours in the day, which is perfect. 

Although these are a few of my new hobbies during this self-distancing season, I am sure that I will continue to find new activities to keep myself sane during this time. Having access to all of this free time is overwhelming and is becoming more of a burden than it is being helpful.