Hey everyone! Hope everyone is staying healthy and sane in quarantine, wherever you may be!

I'm spending quarantine at home in the Philly 'burbs with my family. There's six of us: my mom and dad, my two brothers, Angus and Matthew, me, and my dog, Stars. If there's one of us who's really enjoying quarantine, it's Stars. She's being spoiled with four- or five-mile walks every day and has five people around all the time to play with her!!

While the rest of us definitely aren't thrilled with the whole "being stuck at home" thing, a huge silver lining is that the five of us are spending a lot more time together than we usually get to. My older brother, Angus, plays baseball at UConn, so he is up in New England playing baseball all spring and summer, and obviously basketball season covers the fall and winter, so that leaves a couple weeks at the end of the summer and a few days around Thanksgiving and Christmas that we get to spend together as a family. Even when we were still in high school and all living under the same roof, we were so busy with sports and school that we still didn't spend as much time together as we have over the past month! So that is definitely a positive aspect of quarantine!
 
As for the rest of my life, I've tried to stick to a pretty similar schedule as the one I would be on if I was still at school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I go to online class most of the morning and early afternoon, and then I'll get my workout in in the afternoon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's the opposite: I get my workout done in the morning before class in the afternoon. Along with running and basketball, I've added yoga into my workout routine and have really been enjoying it! Some days, my mom and younger brother, Matthew, will join me in yoga, and they are not very flexible, so it ends up being pretty funny. I also try to go for a walk at least once a day to clear my head and stretch my legs. If I'm not walking with a family member, I'll usually put my headphones in and listen to a podcast.
 
In addition to these new hobbies, quarantine has given me more time to do some things that I love to do but don't have much time for during the busy school year and season. First, I love to cook and bake and make food, so being able to make all my meals and sit down to eat them has been nice. There's been lots of oats, avocado toast, and banana bread, plus a few new recipes mixed in! I also have always loved to read, and I've had much more time to do that recently. I've already finished four books, including one we read as a team and discussed during our weekly meeting. Lastly, this isn't such a great thing, but I've been watching more movies and Netflix. Matthew and I are working on watching the Harry Potter series again (we've watched the first two so far). I also finally watched the Netflix series "You" about a year after everybody else in the world.
 
While I do appreciate that these circumstances have allowed me to be with my entire family, develop new hobbies, and get back to doing some of the things I love, I'm really looking forward to the end of quarantine, hopefully sooner rather than later. I miss Hawk Hill and all the people that make it such a great place. I can't wait to be back with my teammates, coaches, friends, teachers and everyone else!! Until then, stay healthy and safe!

-Katie Mayock