Being a teen during quarantine is tough. This is a prime time in our lives and it is being cut short. I have been pondering over this thought for a while now and at the beginning I felt as though I only half processed it. For teens I think a lot of the time we don’t realize the significance of things, or we don’t fully process them until they are over. At least, that’s how it kind of is for me. So some things I’ve done to help me through this time are meditating and journaling. I want to be able to come out of quarantine with a full understanding of what this point in my life put me through and how it shaped me as a person. I also want to be able to look back at this time and see that I wasn’t unproductive and lazy, but responsible, independent, and focused. At first, quarantine felt like a vacation to me, but like many others, I started to realize and miss the things that we had before quarantine. This thought would often become present in my mind and it was saddening. So to help myself process this, I started meditating and journaling. I journaled before quarantine, but this topic opened me up to a new feeling of writing. In the past I also had experience with meditating but I didn’t do it often. So when I started, it was boring and seemed like a waste of time. I would sit there and think about all the things that I had to get done and finished instead of being present in the moment. But once I continued to meditate, I found myself in a place that was serene and calm. It helped me to listen to calming music so that I couldn’t hear any distractions around me. When I had found my grove, it was a very beneficial and refreshing thing for me to do. It helped me clear my mind and taught me how to focus. It was a space when I could sit with my thoughts and think over them instead of pushing them far back in my mind and ignoring them. When I did this, it gave me new things to journal about and gave me a new perspective on life and this time. Looking back in my journal, I can see a change in myself from the beginning of quarantine to now, and I feel more at ease with the situation we are all in. So with that said, I think it is important that we all find things that we can do to help us process and cope with our struggles. A place or thing that we can use as an outlet, that can benefit and teach you things along the way.