Hello, my name is Arya Wategaonkar, and I am a Leo at Phoenix Jewel of the East Leo’s Club. I have, similarly to everyone else worldwide, been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Over a seemingly never-ending year, I faced incessant shortcomings and a recession from social interaction as a whole. The longer I was trapped in isolation, the more detrimental it was to the relationships that I had with people that I would interact with on a day-to-day basis. As time stopped and hours crawled by, I endeavored to pick up new hobbies, spend time on furthering my current hobbies, or find any better ways to pass the time if I could.
As I tried to find things to do, I started to get involved in doing volunteer work online for Phoenix Jewel of the East’s Lions Club. I found this to be a great way to pass time and give back to the community as well. What I found intriguing about PJOELC's volunteering projects was that I could exercise artistic creativity while spreading information. A few projects that I participated in were creating certificates, flyers, video editing, cards and even teaching lessons! PJOELC provided a fantastic array of unique volunteer opportunities that kept me interested in helping the community while providing a creative outlet for me. Due to the wide variety of creative projects that were provided, I was also able to experiment and push myself to my limits to discover and work with different mediums to create the projects. Over quarantine, I started to pick up digital art and was able to share my journey with it through the card-making project for medical workers. I was also able to work with numerous wonderful people that were truly dedicated to express their commitment and enthusiasm towards volunteering. I learned how to work with people in a group, and slowly I began to truly enjoy volunteering at PJOELC. It soon became the silver lining of my quarantine.
While it may be easy to look at the downsides in quarantine, I urge you to endeavor to find your own silver lining within your quarantine - whether it may be spending more time with your family or pets, taking a break from life and relaxing, having time to spend on your hobbies, or finally binge-watching that tv show that you’ve been putting off for months. Now, as the world returns back to the nostalgic sense of normalcy as people flock to get vaccinated, I hope that you have found or appreciated at least one silver lining from quarantine.
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