All posts by Cassidy Smith, Correspondent

Features

New Year’s resolutions: The lie we keep telling ourselves

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Many make New Year’s resolutions but are unable to keep them.

Working out, eating healthier, reading more. But how are some able to complete their resolutions and even make them into a habit?

I asked two current and one former NECC student about this to try to examine what factors made their resolutions stick.

Former student Karen Smith made a resolution in 2020, to eat healthier; two years later she has kept that resolution and has lost almost 40 pounds!

I sat down with her to ask what steps she took to be successful.

She told me, “Honestly, what made it the easiest for me to keep up with it was meal prepping. With my meals already made, I was less tempted to eat something else because I had something already prepared and did not want it to go bad!”

For Smith, her kids were also a spark of inspiration to keep her going. “I wanted to be healthier for my kids so I can live longer and overall just feel better about myself.”

Olivia Hansen’s goal was to read more books.

On average in 2020 she read about 12 books. Now in 2022 she is reading almost 50 books a year.

“Really, what it did for me was making the time to go and read. When I found myself on my phone for a little too long, I would instead go and pick up a book. The more and more I did that it became easier for me to choose my book instead of my phone. Then it became a game to see how many books I could read.”

Hansen’s tip for those trying to read more: pick an interesting and fast paced book, if you keep reading engaging books you’ll find yourself always wanting to read more.

For Avery Hochheiser, her goal was to work out more.

She told me it was hard at first but once it became routine, she found herself enjoying when it was time to go workout. “Kickboxing is what made it fun for me. I don’t think if I did any other type of exercise I would have been able to keep at it.”

Finding what was enjoyable was key for Hochheiser keeping her resolution.

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Reading is the new yoga

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Covid-19 gave way to new hobbies, such as reading. According to the New Yorker, reading can put people in a pleasure-like state of mind, similar to meditation.

I interviewed 2 current and one previous student from NECC asking how they utilize reading to better help their mental health.

Maddie Reid, a current student at NECC, told me how reading made her feel during the pandemic.

“Reading for me was escapism from what was happening. It allowed me to take a step back from the world and enter a new one where there was no pandemic and it was quite a happy scene”.

Reid then explained to me how reading helped to let her mind settle away from the problems of the world and she noticed herself feeling calm.

The same feeling was felt by former student Karen Smith. As a mother of three, covid took a large mental toll on her.

She picked up reading when her daughter suggested a book for her to read.

After reading that book she told me, “It really changed what I did with my time during covid. Instead of being on my phone unnecessarily for hours at a time I would pick up a book and begin reading. It helped to mentally to take a break from the news and social media”.

The news can be a downer, especially in times of despair like when we were in covid.

Taking a break from that to read can be a great measure to keep your mental health in check.

Ella Lane too told me that the world she entered while reading kept her anxieties about covid and the world away. “Creating that world in your mind from a book was essential for me to keep my anxiety in check and to not work myself up from the media.

Reading protected my mind from the scary thoughts regarding what was going Smith 2 on”.

Books for Ella were an iron curtain between her imagination and the real world.

Books have been known to be a relaxing tool for people, especially during times of covid. It is the small habits and choices, such as picking up a book, that can really help one’s mental health.

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Oh, what to do with time? Pandemic inspires new hobbies

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When the world shut down in March of 2020, people were left with endless time on their hands. But what were people to do with all that time?

Two current and one former NECC students tell me the intriguing new hobbies the Covid quarantine gave them.

Karen Smith explains to me her most recent and now most favorite hobby she acquired, running.

She tells me, “Well, when Covid first started, I found myself being totally unproductive, lounging around all day and really finding no purpose to do much because of the dreary time.”
That all changed, though, when she purchased the Peloton Treadmill. Smith tells me that this fancy electronic treadmill with on-demand classes at her disposal changed her life.

“As soon as it was set up, I immediately took a class and felt the instant gratification and motivation to move my body, giving purpose to being stuck at home. I also loved it because it helped to make myself happier, it was like checking off a box on a to-do list, and I love that feeling.”

Smith’s COVID blues were cured by running; however, student Olivia Hansen found an affinity for crocheting to help pass the time.

As an avid Tiktok watcher, her inspiration hit when she saw a video of a girl crocheting a shirt.

“When I saw that, I was like, well I can do that!” and so she went to the store and picked up the materials she needed. She explained to me that crocheting was an expressive outlet that allowed her creativity to shine with what she chose to make. She fell in love with crocheting, from shorts to shirts and even dresses.

Fellow classmate Avery Hochheiser found herself diving nose deep into literature to keep her head above Covid’s water. With her former English teacher dad as her inspiration and guide, she began reading.

“I realized that reading was a form of escapism, and during COVID, I was desperately needing to escape the reality of the
current world situation.”

With that, she told me she finished approximately ten books each month and found herself feeling less dull and gloomy being stuck in the house. The endless time given to us by Covid allowed people to look inwards and find out what they enjoy doing with their time, thus the flourishing of hobbies such as running, crocheting, and reading.

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COVID-19 and online learning leaves lasting mental health impacts

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Massachusetts schools were ordered to be suspended from in-person

learning by March 16, 2020, by Gov. Charles Baker.

Now in 2022, after a year and a half of online learning students have finally returned to in-person school. But how has the last year and a half affected the mental health of students?

I interviewed NECC dual-enrollment students Olivia Hansen and Avery Hochheiser to answer that pressing question.

During the lockdown, Hochheiser recalled that “honestly, Covid had been hard because of the social isolation. Not interacting with people my age and being stuck at home all day was just hard. There was less motivation and excitement about doing things because I was at home all the time.”

A UNICEF study showed that during this time of isolation, “The general situation in the countries and their localities has affected the daily life of young people as 46% report having less motivation to do activities they usually enjoyed. 36% feel less motivated to do regular chores.”

Covid-19 has diminished the motivation from the same routine repeated from being stuck in their homes.

Now more than ever Olivia Hansen says, COVID-19 has affected her. She tells me, “It made me realize (how) much I missed out on during the past two years, and sometimes it can make me sad. It has also been a large shift going back to school and getting back into the habit of doing school work and having to socialize with the other kids at school with who I haven’t interacted with in the last year. It can be stressful, but there is a lot of support available for students.”

Schools such as Newburyport High School have been implementing accessible mental health resources not only on their website but also allowing access to a counselor any time during the school day.

Covid is by no means over yet so it is unknown the depth that COVID-19 will have on American’s mental health.