Staying in, online lectures, social distancing. How do students deal with it? In this relay blog, Vox writers who study at Radboud write about their life in times of corona. Joos de Ruiter, English Language and Culture student, has rediscovered her old hobbies.

Five years ago, I left my parents’ home in Maastricht for a new adventure in Nijmegen. But even though a lot of new things came because of this adventure, I left a lot behind in Limburg. Now, since I have been home-home for two months, I had time to rediscover some of my old hobbies.

I, for example, had ten years of piano lessons, as well as some years of guitar- and singing lessons. But when I moved to Nijmegen, I neither took a piano nor a guitar with me. My old knowledge luckily hasn’t entirely been overwritten by Shakespeare’s sonnets and language theories. Everything came back with a little bit of practice: Chopin and Tsjaikovski on the piano, Taylor Swift and The Beatles on the guitar. So now my father and sister can enjoy my (very mediocre) jingles around the clock.

’I have already finished my reading challenge of forty books a year’

But what I have done by far the most over the past two months is reading. I, naturally, have a lot of mandatory reading for my study, which is why I often don’t feel like picking up a novel in my free time. I always found that quite sad, because I’ve been a huge bookworm in the past. But right now I read possibly more than I did back then! I have already finished my reading challenge of forty books a year, of which I was always behind a few books in the past. When my father doesn’t know where I am: the hammock (with book) is always a good idea to look.

The causes for this quarantine are obviously not nice, but I don’t experience sitting at home as bad as many other people. It has given me room and time to rediscover things my normal life has been too busy for. So: if you get bored, think of the hobbies you had as a child or teenager. Perhaps, this way you can rediscover a passion of yours!