When the year 2020 began, most of us never prepared for a pandemic. Of course, we prepared for some uncertainties but not for the worse such as the COVID-19 lockdown. Everyone is affected by the lockdown. Adults who are stuck with their kids and the same routine, and even teenagers who are tired spending all day in the walls of their room, and their house.
I have been working remotely since on Wednesday, and I feel bored despite that I have to write and even meet some deadlines.
I am tired of sleeping, waking, eating, and seeing the same set of people. I want to get up from my bed every morning, wear some clothes, and get to work. I want to be able to shake someone, hug a friend, walk into a canteen and eat without having to fear the almighty COVID-19.
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I hate that I only have one option right now, which is to stay home. I know you hate this too, but we do not have a choice. Or do we?
Now that you know that we do not have a choice, we all just have to stay at home, to save ourselves, and others. While you and I are staying at home, what then can we do? Samson wrote about some things you can do during this lockdown, and I love the tips he shared in that article.
However, you may get stuck on social media during this lockdown, get overwhelmed with too many free courses all over the internet, or develop more sentiment towards your parents, or friends this period. My post is to help you take note of 5 different things that you may experience during this lockdown.
1. Cyber-bulling and addiction to social media
I realized that the internet has more active users than ever before. It is evident with the number of challenges, and tweets on Twitter, and other social media platforms. You must have seen the #dontrushchallenge, I love it!
A lot of people are bored and teenagers are more bored. A lot of teenagers wants to follow a new set of people, use this avenue to boost their followers on social media, and also join whatsoever trend, or challenge.
However, if you are not careful, you will most likely get addicted to the internet if that’s all that keeps you busy at this time.
On the other hand, this lockdown may push teenagers out of boredom to share secrets of their classmates or grade mates.
For example, Diana is a 15-year-old girl, she is the last daughter to Mr and Mrs Whitehead. Her elder siblings are married and lives out of town. Since the lockdown, she is forced to live with her parents, whom she thinks are the worse parents in the world. Yesterday, she was bored, hence she shared her cliché secrets on Facebook. Her cliché consists of 5 girls, May, Emily, Sophie, Avi, and herself. She took the secrets of each of her friends to Facebook, and her other classmates are reposting and sharing these secrets on social media.
If you have been bullied on social media before, you will understand that most friends who bullied you did that as a result of boredom – at least, a nasty post will attract some likes and comments. Moreover, some adults may threaten with different things, asking you to share your bank details, or share your nudes, try as much as possible to avoid this.
How can you avoid this?
- Avoid posting unnecessary things on social media.
- Ask yourself if your friend will like what you are about to post about them on the internet
- Ask yourself how you would feel when someone says something nasty about you on social media.
- When you notice any bully, you can report the person to the platform’s authority, and tell your teenage friends to avoid such person.
2. Create a learning strategy
I keep getting links to some free courses on some online learning platforms, and I am yet to complete any of those courses I started. Why?
When I get some, I ask myself if it is relevant to my career as a content developer, or to my academics as a public health professional. When the answer is no, I simply move to the next thing. When the course is relevant to my growth, I simply enrol for it.
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I should complete one of those courses before my next article.
You need a learning strategy. Do not enrol for any course without any strategy, unless you want to have too many uncompleted projects.
How to create a learning strategy
- Write down all you need to learn. For example, I want to take a course on content editing, storytelling, and a professional course on public health.
- Search for learning options to learn any of the courses you have listed in your journal. Shortly before I started this blog post, I search for professional courses for public health professionals, and I found some. Of course, they are not free. If you need free courses, you can check Alison, Udemy, HubSpot, or Edx.
- Find out how many hours you can devote to these courses. You have 24 hours daily, how about spend 3 hours each on each of those courses, or 5 hours on every of those courses.
3. Talent Discovery
Do you know you can discover your talent during this period? Do you know you can discover a problem-solving idea at a time like this? Yes, you can.
I have discovered some things at this time too, and I think you can. However, you need to be conscious of your thoughts, the things you watch, and what you hear.
Do you know that you can discover that you are a great dancer after making a video on Tik Tok or Triller? You can discover that you can become a novelist, after creating some stories.
The bottom line is don’t overlook any of the activities you do at this time. Make sure you are deliberate when doing anything.
4. Maximize and create a healthy relationship with your parents
I have spent more time at home than I have done in the last 6 months this past week, and I have discovered some things about my siblings and mum.
Do you think your parents are difficult people? Do you think they are careless and hate you? Do you think they are the worse parents on earth? Well, this is a good opportunity to understand why your parents act the way they do.
How about asking them questions about they feel about you, and your course?
Ask them some personal questions, and trust me, their answers will help you understand the untold stories about them.
5. Look out for what God is saying
Is God calling you? Yes, he is. He is always calling us at one point or the other in our lives. If you have not seen the movie titled “God Calling”, I think you should.
This is the best time to spend time with God. Ask him questions, read your Bible. Talk to him about your uncertainties, and fears, and dreams, and ambition.
TeeFaith was invited to speak on the subject of waiting to a group of Teenagers and Young Adults a few days ago, and she quoted a verse of the scriptures that says,
“Those who compare themselves with themselves are not wise.”
2 Corinthians 10:12
I think this lockdown is a waiting period for some of us, if not everyone. It is a time to wait on the Lord on every aspect of your life. This isn’t the time to compare yourself with anyone.
Are you worried that James scored 300 in JAMB, and you are still not sure if you go to the university this year, because you got 189?
Are you uncertain about your future as a medical student?
Are you are worried about what the future holds as a fatherless child?
Are you struggling with your parents’ divorce?
You are not alone on this. We all have our hurdles and mountains. Yes, we all have. You ain’t the only one with problems, we all have some issues we have to address in our lives.
Why don’t you take this phase to speak to the mountain? Pray for your mother’s healing, your father’s job, your siblings’ attitude, your friend’s addiction. Pray about your struggles and fear as a student. Pray about that course, that exam, that roommate that troubles you.
Darling, pray because God is always ready to answer you.
These are five things you should look out for this period, what other things do you know, drop your answers in the comment.
Moreover, if you need a teen coach to help you on any aspect of your life, relationship, your parent, or on your prayer life, send us a message.
Olayemi loves you 💕💕
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