Being stuck at home for 5 months now has been very rough. Luckily for me, I have some great friends in my hometown to help me through it! Everyone in my friend group goes to different colleges throughout different states, so when we all go away to school, it can be pretty difficult to make time to talk to each other. However, since we have all been stuck home since March, this time has been great for us to catch up.

At the beginning of quarantine, none of us saw each other due to the pandemic being so new and all of the guidelines and stay-at-home orders in place. However, we did not let this stop us from talking daily and seeing each other on FaceTime! We would talk for hours about how our colleges were from the beginning of the school year up until we got sent home, and big plans of things to do after the stay at home order was lifted. It was really nice having this interaction with them and gave me something to look forward to while being stuck at home.

Then, once the stay at home order was lifted, we started to do things outdoors and 6 feet away so that way we could talk face to face and be in each other's presence.

One thing we did was go on daily morning walks at our local parks. Another super fun thing was going to the beaches (that were finally opened!). Although we were 6 feet apart, that never stopped us from having a good time!

And now, we all do things together, like go shopping for little things at Target/Home Goods (with our masks on), go out to eat (where we can only eat outside) and spend more time at the beach together! So even though I missed out on the final months of my sophomore year of college, I got to reunite with old friends and spend more quality time with them.

Being able to be back with my hometown friends is probably the best thing to come out of quarantine.