The End of the World? Posts

I hate to admit it, but I’m constantly downloading apps. The joy and entertainment of a fun new game never seems to last long, but I keep downloading them anyway. During this time of quarantine, I’ve enjoyed the small amounts of delight that the ever-rotating games on my phone can bring me.  

A few weeks ago (couldn’t tell you how many), I accidentally woke up around 5:30 am. I take my night owl lifestyle pretty seriously, so naturally my first idea was to get back to sleep as quickly as possible. I couldn’t fall back asleep though, because of all the singing birds. 

I’ve lived in this house in suburban Virginia almost as long as I can remember; we moved in when I was about three. When I was growing up, before I spent all my time playing games on my phone, I spent all my time outside. I loved rocks and bugs and everything else. Each day, I used to check under all the gutters around my house for worms and toads. I had one favorite toad in particular, the biggest of the bunch, who I lovingly called “Toady.” I had a fort in my backyard, which was really just a collection of rocks and sticks that I had arranged around a clearing, and a few old plastic chairs. I liked to pick poke berries and mash them up, using the bright pink dye to paint my name on the trees. I had a small red photo album decorated with white hearts. In each page of the book I placed a different leaf from my backyard, and, I’m proud to admit, a few four leaf clovers. 

All of this was, of course, a very long time ago, before smartphones and Netflix and college and Zoom and the coronavirus. 

So, when I found myself in my childhood home in Virginia, hundreds of miles from my dorm at Duke, unable to sleep because too many birds were singing, I felt a tug. I listened more closely to the birds, and was brought back to my childhood days in the backyard, watching the toads and the worms and the ants go about their days. Having no background knowledge on birds, their habitats, or their songs, I really wanted to know what birds I was hearing. How was it, I wondered, that I had lived here my whole life, and had no idea what kind of birds lived around  here? 

Luckily, there was an app for that. Some early morning Googling produced Song Sleuth: Auto Bird Song ID. I downloaded it, and it did not disappoint. It’s a cool app that can identify bird songs by their species. You can record your song and let the app try to ID it, or you can listen to song recordings to try to match them to the birds outside. You can select your state and the time of year to bring up a list of the most likely birds. I didn’t try to record a song, but I was able to identify three different birds that morning by listening to the recordings. I heard an American Robin, a Carolina Wren, and a Tufted Titmouse. And I was delighted. I read the bios of each bird that the app provided, and learned about each bird’s migration patterns and the hallmarks of its song. I even listened to recordings of the same birds from around the country. 

The app didn’t solve all my coronavirus related problems, but it did give me the opportunity to learn something about my surroundings and a chance to continue my childhood love for the natural world around me. 

In this class we talk a lot about the end- predicted endings, endings that don’t come, and endings that do (but are they the end?). While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought an end to many things- concerts, the school year, and sports seasons, jobs, relationships, and plans- our class has chosen to look at the coronavirus not just as an end, but as a beginning, and as an opportunity for continuity. 

While it doesn’t have to be Song Sleuth specifically, I recommend anything that can help you connect to your environment and your community, even if it’s not the one you’re usually living in, and embrace continuities over ends. 

In the past, when the question of “What do you like to do with your free time?” has come up in interviews or when meeting new people, I’ve always tried to dodge it by saying “I don’t really have much free time” or “I spend time with my friends I guess.” And to some extent, this is true. At Duke, the pressures of academic obligations, extracurriculars, working out, having a social life, and getting enough sleep run our lives, leaving us with little time to figure out what we actually like to do to when nobody is telling us what to do.

At first, this made the adjustment to life in quarantine tough. I realized how much I love the structure of my regular daily life, even though in the moment it often felt stressful and overwhelming. However, now that I’ve had some time to adjust, I’ve figured out a number of ways to keep myself busy, and I hope this list can in turn help others. While I can’t be at Duke or see my friends, I’m hoping that having the opportunity to read, watch, and explore will help me expand my mind and increase my creativity in other ways. I’d like to be able to look back on this time in my life and say “Yeah, that sucked, but I learned something about myself and the world around me during it.” More than anything, though, I hope this experience teaches me to stop taking the little things in life for granted and do more of what I love, as nothing is guaranteed.

Books:

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney (one of the most moving books I’ve read in a while)
2. The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker (page turner!)
3. American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson (strong female lead, important messages about race)
4. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (mixes the fantastical with the mundane to talk about family and love)
5. The Institute by Steven King (suspenseful storytelling)

TV Shows:

1. Little Fires Everywhere (a book and a Hulu series)
2. Money Heist (in Spanish! fun to watch with subtitles or in its original language)
3. Arrested Development (funniest TV show in my opinion)
4. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (set in my home city)
5. The End of the F***ing World (dark comedy)

Movies

1. Parasite (it’s been said many times before, but this movie is truly fantastic)
2. Crazy, Stupid, Love. (heart-warming rom com)
3. I, Tonya (another dark comedy, but biographical)
4. Trolls World Tour (yes, it’s a kids’ movie, but I’ve watched it twice already with my 7-year-old sister and it’s really good)
5. Ratatouille (another kids’ movie, but a truly feel-good favorite)

Podcasts

1. Freakonomics (the economics behind everyday things, lots of new episodes on COVID-19)
2. My Favorite Murder (two comedians discuss true crime)
3. Caliphate (by a New York Times reporter trying to understand ISIS)
4. Serial (investigative journalism)
5. The Knowledge Project (successful people give insight into their backgrounds and achievements)

Activities:

1. Bake a cake and see how many layers high you can make it (I’ve gotten up to 6 layers so far)
2. Listen to a podcast as you wander around your neighborhood
3. Climb a tree
4. Play internet Scrabble with college friends you miss
5. Make Tik Toks with your siblings or parents
6. Get really into crafting (knitting/crocheting, scrapbooking, painting/drawing, making friendship bracelets)
7. Learn how to meditate
8. Zoom an older relative and ask about their childhood
9. Clean out your closet and make a pile to donate
10. Dye your hair pink (temporarily)