#ISOLIFE
So you have found yourself in isolation, maybe you’re on your Gap placement still in-country staying with your host school or a distant family member or maybe you are back home with your family. Either way you now find yourself inside, trying to entertain yourself, waiting to recommence your gap year.
Here at Letz Live we have also been social distancing and living the iso life, working from home and trying to manage this new “normal”.
The conversation at the moment is how do we actually cope with this new reality that we have all found ourselves in? Whether you were a gap assistant in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, South Africa, the United Kingdom or Russia we are all in this together. Our gap year 2020 is completely different than what we had envisioned. So how can you turn a negative into a postive, what is your silver-lining?
Instead of a job as a teaching assistant at a boarding school, maybe you have found a new interest, passion, or have you been upskilling with the free online courses? The Letz Live team have been busy looking at alternatives for your gap year programs, and also compling lists of things to do in ISO.
A gap assitant’s guide to ISO life:
- Try and stick to a routine. This might just be as simple as getting up, eating breakfast, getting dressed and cleaning your teeth. Remembering to do these simple everyday things can help you keep some normality and better manage your mood for the day.
- Doing some form of physical activity everyday. This can be as simple as a walk around the block with your family or your dog or your fellow gappie. Maybe you might try some yoga or if you are feeling more motivated, there are so many online fitness classes and programs at the moment meaning you can workout easily from your own bedroom or boarding school dormroom.
- Stay in touch with your Gappie friends! Reach out to your fellow Gaps or someone you met on orientation. Everyone is going through the same things as you, so reaching out and catching up is so so important.
- Organise zoom/houseparty/facetime chats
- Organise a trivia night over video chat with your fellow Gaps
- Suggest a new movie or TV show to watch and then call each other to discuss it later (how crazy was Tiger King!)
- Video Chat games i.e. play uno/charades etc. with your Gappie friends
- Create Spotify playlists to share with your friends to soundtrack your iso life
- Virtual book club with your friends
- Online Game
- Keep in touch with your host school to see how they are coping with everything at the moment.
- Organise your travel photos for your gap year programme. Although short you did get to experience a new country and workplace environment. This is the perfect time to go through all of your gap year photos, and organise them into folders.
- Take the time to learn a new skill or hobby, new language or even do an online course. Maybe listen to some Podcasts or watch a Ted Talk.
- Be creative
- Write that travel journal you have been meaning to write all year.
- Paint or draw some of your favourite spots you have seen on your travels
- Learn a musical instrument or really master that guitar that has been sitting in the corner of your room for years.
- Make a vision board
- Start dreaming about where you want to travel once the world opens back up again, write down your ultimate bucket list. Or take part in virtual tours around key sites around the world.
- Make a Tik Tok video
- Do some cooking/baking. Impress your family or friends with a dish you have tried overseas or be like everyone else on the internet and cook some banana bread 😉
While isolation isn’t where you may have seen yourself in 2020 this is also a great chance to relax; to learn something new; to keep in touch with new and old friends and to look after yourself.
Remember this won’t be forever.
While things may have been placed on hold for now, Letz Live will be available once restrictions lift. Stay safe everyone.
Photo credit and thanks goes to Helen Kroukam who is currently in ISO on placement in New Zealand.
