On Gap-Year Hobbies

I’ll be honest: I’ve been trying to write this blog post since March, when quarantine first started. Originally, the title of this piece was going to be “On Quarantine Hobbies,” and it was going to include a list of activities that were keeping me occupied during the stay-at-home orders. As is often the case, however, I underestimated just how much time virtual schoolwork was going to take; between juggling classes and finally getting enough sleep, I never really found the right moment to get started on most of these hobbies, let alone write a blog post about them. After graduating college in May, I jumped right into working on medical school applications. During this time, I did get started on many of the quarantine projects—now gap-year hobbies—that I had wanted to work on, but frankly, by the end of the summer, I was starting to feel burnt out from writing so many application essays. In August, I also began working full time as a research technician in a lab at MGH, which further cut down how much time I had for hobbies and writing.

All of that is to say, I’ve needed a break from blogging the last few months, but I’m ready to slowly get back in—and with that, ready to finally write this post, as well. When I haven’t been in lab or working on my medical school applications, here are four of the hobbies that have helped keep me sane throughout the first half of my gap year:

1. Reading

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said right before a vacation or break of some sort that “I can’t wait to have more time to read!” Yet, I almost never actually end up taking the time to read.

Lately, however, I’ve been reading on the train during my commute home from work in the evenings. Having this consistent, continuous block of time to read each day has been really amazing. So far, some of the books I’ve read over the last few months include André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared, and a collection of short stories by Israeli author Etgar Keret called Fly Already. Up next, I think I’m going to re-read one of my favorite novels, Flowers for Algernon, after having had a conversation about it recently during a med school interview. It’s a quick read, so any other book suggestions for afterward would be much appreciated!  

2. Clarinet

Band was by far my most important extracurricular activity growing up ever since I began playing the clarinet in fourth grade. In college, I took time off from music to be able to explore other extracurricular interests; over the course of my gap year, however, I hope to get back into the clarinet. Recently, I’ve been working on learning several ABBA songs, particularly the bigger hits like “Mamma Mia” and “Dancing Queen.” I bought a book of sheet music for various ABBA songs back when I was in high school and it’s been a lot of fun revisiting the pieces now. The melodies are fairly simple, so playing these songs has also been great for getting myself used to the clarinet fingerings and embouchure again. Some of the medical schools I’ve been interviewing at have orchestra or band extracurricular activities for students and faculty, so perhaps I’ll return to more formal music performance in med school!

3. Cooking

In college, I was fortunate to have a meal plan for all four years.¹ While this was certainly convenient during the hustle-and-bustle of schoolwork, it meant that I never really had the chance to practice cooking for myself. Now that I’m home for the year, I’ve been trying to learn new recipes and just generally become more confident in the kitchen. To aid in this effort, my friend Emma bought me Antoni Porowski’s cookbook for my 23^rd birthday a couple months ago. I’ve already tried out several of Antoni’s recipes, including his latkes, chicken souvlaki, salmon, and Alsatian tarts. Additionally, I’ve also been trying to perfect my technique for cooking scallops, as well as making Gordon Ramsay’s scrambled egg recipe (the trick is to stir continuously and add crème fraîche at the end).

4. Cleaning

Of all my hobbies, this one’s arguably the most important. I own an insane amount of junk, from old high school notebooks to random small toys I got when I was a child. Before I move out and start med school, I really want to go through all my things and determine what needs to be donated or thrown out.

My closet is no exception to this. I’m notoriously bad at getting rid of old clothes, even when I don’t wear them anymore. In fact, I convince myself to keep even the most tattered, ill-fitting clothing by telling myself that I might one day need to wear it to paint a house or clean something exceptionally dirty—as if I’ve ever done either of those things in the last ten years of my life. Not to mention, I also have shirts that I’ve owned since at least fifth or sixth grade. I actually wore some of them throughout college, believe it or not, but it’s definitely time for an upgrade.

The last few months, I was really good about putting my foot down and getting rid of clothes that don’t fit me well. I’ll admit, however, that it was tough to get rid of my numerous graphic t-shirts, some dating back to as early as middle or high school and others that I got for free at events in college. In an effort to repurpose these shirts, my mom and I sent a whole bunch to a small company that makes quilts out of t-shirts. My quilt just came in earlier in the week, and I’m really excited about how it turned out:

My work cleaning is far from over, as many of my friends know because I’ve been regularly sending them photos of random items I’ve found while cleaning my room that have brought back old memories. In one of my next blog posts—which I promise not to wait several months to write this time—I hope to share some of the wild things I’ve discovered during my adventures cleaning my room.

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[1] About 98% of Harvard undegrads live on campus because many of our advising resources and community events are tied to our residential “houses.” All students who live on campus are required to have a meal plan—a rule Harvard instituted a while back to ensure that students wouldn’t forgo meals in order to save money.