STAY CONNECTED
It’s so important to stay in contact with all your friends and extended family members during this time. Through constant communication, not only can you provide support and comfort to others, but it’ll make you feel better interacting with people outside your house too!
These days I fall asleep and wake up with the FaceTime ringtone playing in my head. FaceTime has been my saving grace. I have never appreciated technology and WiFi like I have in these first few weeks of #quarantineseason. Being able to see my friends in an instant is a blessing, even though only virtually, I wouldn’t want it any other way while we sit at home waiting for this pandemic to end. This probably isn’t new news to you– using FaceTime during your quarantine every day, but my friends and I have discovered that these FaceTimes have become quite the same, since nothing new is going on in life. My friends and I have found some fun ways to “hang out” together, while keeping to the social-distancing rules.
To start off, if you don’t already listen to TPM’s podcast, Girls Next Door, I mentioned this cute idea on Episode 9: “Hugs and VSCO” (you should go listen!! I linked it!!). Since I don’t go to school with any of my home friends, they don’t get to see every moment of my life like my college friends do. My friend group at home is also an amazing group of driven, ambitious gals who are all so involved in their schools. As a whole, we don’t catch up often… SO we came up with the idea to make Life Update Presentations. We decided to have a Zoom series (and yes I know, Zoom not FaceTime) where we each go one at a time on different nights and share presentations we made updating each other on what we’ve been up to this semester!
We share things from classes to social life and everything in between, with pictures of course! It's a super creative idea we came up with to stay connected and also have entertaining phone calls. There comes a point where you can’t ask each other, “what have you been up to today?” because the answer is probably going to be, nothing. It’s also interesting hearing about what other people have been doing with their friends over FaceTime or Zoom (super useful for bigger groups of people). Here is a few things I’ve heard other people doing:
Virtual Happy
HourNetflix Party
A way to watch Netflix with your friends that synchronizes the video and also includes a chat feature
Study Dates
Cards Against Humanity Online
Through the website playingcards.io You can play the game “Remote Insensitivity”
Lunch or Dinner Dates
The app Houseparty (another video conferencing option) now has games you can play like pictionary & Heads Up!
Virtual cooking/baking together I’ve even seen people play pong through FaceTime
When you think about it, you can make anything virtual– GET CREATIVE!!
Make your FaceTime’s interesting and keep talking to your friends and family. The only way we’ll get through this is if we stay connected together. I know it may not seem this way right now, but we’ll make it through and see everyone soon, in person. When that day comes it’ll be amazing, but for now, keep in contact with those you love most because every little bit of social interaction makes your day that much better.
Stay safe, healthy, keep social distancing, and get your virtual creativity on!
xo Liza