Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well as we dive deeper into COVID-19. For me, I am in my last month of school, so keeping myself busy is somewhat easy. Although I definitely feel lazier than before. I have also been doing a lot of projects for school, so my time is expanded throughout the day. But, when I don’t have projects and presentations, I feel as though my Youtube and Netflix tabs are telling me to go to sleep. Today I’m bringing you what I have been doing to fill up my time during self-quarantine.

First off, as I mentioned, I am in school, but while I am doing online classes, homework has reduced a lot. If I were still going to school, I know my time would not be as free as it is now. So while school is almost over, this is a crucial time to raise my grades (although I feel like none of my teachers want to update my grades, which annoys me).

Besides school work, I’ve been reading a lot (which I’m sure you have noticed by the copious amounts of book reviews I’ve been putting up). While there has been a lot of reviews on my blog lately, I’ve been trying to balance out the content I’ve been putting up for you guys. This way, I can refresh my page with new and various material, but also getting creative with the thoughts I put into each post. I’ve been enjoying books these days because they’re such a lovely pass time. And sometimes when I’m in a class I know I don’t have to do a lot of work for, you’ll see my book below the view of the camera. For more updates, go check out my Goodreads profile where you’ll get a fabulous glimpse or two (or more) of what I’ve been reading so far in 2020 as well as what I am currently reading.

Another thing I’ve picked up doing is writing. I love to write when finding inspiration, so I’ve finally found the time to write. I used to write a lot, but because of school, I found myself writing less and less. So with the generous amounts of free time that I have with self-isolation, I’ve been writing a lot (if you don’t count the time I use for homework or reading). And writing doesn’t necessarily mean writing stories, but different kinds of writing. I’ve found the time to journal and write in my diary. And it’s weird because I’ve had since 2015. I apparently didn’t find the time to write during these five years. It’s such a short notebook too, so it’s extra shocking I’ve been writing in this notebook for so long.

And I’m saving the best for last because it is my most concerning: Youtube and Netflix. When I’m doing homework, it’s one of the two that’s one as background noise. When I’m writing, cleaning, homework, doing anything in general, it’s either Youtube or Netflix. Also, that’s probably one of the main reasons my screen time is so high. The only time I don’t have them on is when I am reading, and even then I have my Spotify open for some background noise. It seems I have a significant problem with these two entertainment websites. But I’m not sure I’m too concerned (Lie, I very much am).

I would also like to add, to stop myself from sitting in my chair or on my bed for too long, I am exercising every day for 30 minutes. I usually open up a Youtube video of some home workouts, and I’m out in the living room sweating it up.

So those are the things that have been keeping me busy during the self-quarantining days. What about you guys? I would love to hear what you all have been doing and how you have been doing. Thank you, everyone, and I hope you like this and also comment down below what are some things you’ve been doing to pass the time. Have a great day!

Loves,

Veronica Chen

Grammarly is something I use every day whether it’s for school or work, Grammarly is working continuously. Even as I type this blog post out, I’m using it! I started using Grammarly since I was in middle school, maybe 7th Grade? Since then, I’ve been using it to write assignments, research papers, essays, emails, and so much more. After my first year of Grammarly, I convinced both my parents to let me get Grammarly premium, telling them how much I would use it and how important that it would help me expand on my writing abilities. Although I’m sure I exaggerated a bit back in 7th Grade, I know now, almost five years later, I do not regret getting Grammarly premium.

This blog post is in no way sponsored but instead comes from my interest in writing this post for you all to know how much I genuinely use this tool.

So what exactly is the appealing thing about Grammarly that everyone loves? Well, Grammarly is for different purposes for different people, so what I write now can be the complete opposite of what you use Grammarly for in your life. As a student, Grammarly has become an extraordinary tool for me to use. I am a writer, so when using Grammarly, my words can sound so much better with the corrections and alerts it shows me, forcing me to realize that my sentence can indeed be rewritten.

When it comes to education, Grammarly sits in the background, helping me correct my mistakes when I write details for my classes and even helps me when it comes to emailing my teachers. It has been much more convenient with Grammarly than not having it on my laptop. I have gotten questions if I ever got the mobile version of Grammarly, and the answer is no. I had tried it before; however, it had been an inconvenience for me on my phone. But don’t let that stop you from using it on your laptop.

Grammarly is entirely safe to use, and even with the free version, it is still an excellent tool for everyday use. I use it to format emails to my teachers when needed, and it has not let me down. Punctuation has continuously let me down when it comes to writing anything, so when I first started using Grammarly, it was an absolute lifesaver, especially with the amount of writing I do daily.

As we are in the middle of COVID-19, the use of Grammarly for me has increased by a lot. In the past, I used paper and pen to plan out essays and research papers, but now that I have taken to online classes, my plans need to be seen by my teachers. Through this, I can see whether I am too wordy; if I should switch the words, if I have the right punctuation, if I wrote the term wrong, etc. I know that without Grammarly, I would not be able to spot these with my eyes as well as it does.

I hope that you all can consider using Grammarly for your personal use, whether using the free version or the premium version.

Loves,

Veronica Chen

Rejection is hard. It took me since the beginning of April until now to fully write this post because I don’t know where I wanted to take this post. And to be honest, I still don’t fully know where I want to go with this and what points I want to point out.

In the beginning of April, I told my crush I liked him and he said he just wanted to be friends. I was sitting at my desk when I told him, my hand on my phone, unmoving. Because why move? Why move when you just got rejected? I had sat there for a few moments, not sure what to do, so I started rambling in my thoughts.

The first thing I did was mute his chat. Because when I talk to people, his chat would be moving toward the bottom and I didn’t need a notification every time he talked to me nor did I need a reminder of my previous actions. To this day, there are some moments where I look at his name on my chat and wonder if I should just say hi. The answer is no. Don’t say hi. Don’t say, how are you. Don’t say anything. And that’s what I did. I didn’t say a word, I didn’t type a word. And it worked sometimes. I stopped thinking about whether I should say hi or not, I stopped wondering if he was thinking about me, because I knew the answer was no, he certainly was not ever going to think of me.

It’s an especially hard time with self-quarantines and COVID-19, but, being apart is the best thing you can do for yourself. If you’re in university or school and you met him through class, let’s hope that his Zoom profile is all the way at the end of the list so you don’t have to see his face. Because that’s what I do, forget that he’s in my class and just have it on speaker view so I only see my teacher’s face. Speaking of more technology, delete his photos, because even I have a picture of my crush so my friends could see what he looks like. Delete those, no one, especially you, needs those photos.

I’ve also been reading a lot of fiction. Immerse yourself in the glorious world of fiction and forget that he exists because you can have your own fantasy world where everyone is better and slightly more entertaining. And if you’re not a bookworm, pick up that remote and binge watch movies. Binge watch Studio Ghibli or Disney movies. Binge watch to forget him because that is exactly what I’ve been doing and it has been fantastic.

The easier and faster I can forget everything about him, the better for me and my sanity. Because in my mind and heart I know there are so many better guys out there and that this one rejection you’re facing right now is just one of the many. Rejection is common in the worst way possible, and if they reject you, they’re not worth your energy or your soul, you are worth your own soul.

Loves,

Veronica Chen

PS || Stay safe at home <3

As I realize that this is a post about making time for my favorite things and I have indeed not been writing on this blog (which is one of my favorite things), I’m here to talk about, Making Time For Your Favorite Things. Time is not on our side sometimes, and as a student, I can definitely agree with that. As of right now I need to finish a first draft of an essay which was due today (but knowing my teacher, she won’t check it until tomorrow). 2020 has definitely been in a rough area and while some come here to read about happy things, happy things I will bring you. Forget the news for a while and sit on your couch, or your bed, or maybe at your table for a few minutes to read this blog post.

My favorite thing to do is read, and last year I made a goal to read 30 books in 2019. Disappointingly enough, I read 29 books and not 30. Yes I’m still quite bothered about that and may never let it go. But the main part of 2020 is to focus on reading because I found that I barely read due to lack of time. While my goal is still 30 books this year, I’m hoping that I am able to increase my goal to at least 50 books by the summer. One thing I’ve been doing to make sure I have time to read is sleeping at a decent time. I found that with the Forest App, I’m focusing more due to the lack of distractions. With no distractions around me, I’m getting my homework or writing notes done much faster, letting me be able to have leftover time at night to work on extra curricular or perhaps even reading. I find that reading at night helps me because I’m not looking at any sort of screen before I go to bed and my eyes are rested from any sort of screen. And remember, if you are reading at night, always have good lighting to avoid hurting your eyes. I learned that the hard way and ended with glasses because I read too much in the dark.

By giving myself time at night I can have more time to be able to read, even reading every night. This does not just apply to every night. When I finish my homework on the weekends, while I do love to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine or scroll through Youtube, I’m now spending more time reading (However this does not stop me from doing both). I spend time now being able to read more especially on Sundays, where I’m most likely at home from a nice week of constantly being at school and staying after. I’ve finally found that reading is so much more fun this year because of situations where I’m now staying home more. While this sounds pretty sound, it does have its benefits.

The next and last thing I want to talk about is activities. I haven’t done it in a week or three, but knitting, painting, drawing, etc (or other alternatives to activities that you do). I find that while I won’t do it during the school week, I’ll make sure that I’m resting my eyes on the weekends from doing homework to enjoy my outside enjoyments like painting, drawing, sketching, writing, etc. While maybe you are doing outside activities like sports or work, but, doing these small activities does not have to take a long time. It can be five minutes of your day or even hour/s of your day, depending on how much you want to enjoy your time or perhaps the time you have.

Time is something people don’t have and we can easily enjoy it by putting aside the time of day to do our loved activities.

Yes, I am indeed cutting this blog post short, but, remember, if we don’t have fun, we don’t work well, so, remember to do the activities you love.

Loves,

Veronica Chen