Students pick up new hobbies during quarantine

By Jolene Moore / Staff Writer

What were you doing between when you were sent home from school in the spring until today?

For many, that answer would consist of sleeping, working or even doing nothing. But for others who had hours to pass when they weren’t doing one of those activities, they were learning a new skill.

With as much time as was given over the extensive break, it makes sense to fill your time with different consuming activities. For Hutchinson freshman Katie Rumback, she found a new passion for running during the long days of sitting around.

“I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend outside, since we couldn’t go inside anywhere, and I needed a way to exercise, so we started running on the trail behind our house,” Rumback said.

She also said how her boyfriend and her decided to challenge themselves to run every day for 50 days.

“At the end of the 50 days, we were running 2.5 miles and walking another mile.”

She still plans on keeping up with her running as much as possible with the new school year starting. Hutchinson sophomore Maria Barragan decided to spend her extra time outside as well, but doing something with a little more get and go. Barragan spent her time straddling her new Harley Davidson motorcycle.

When asked why she decided to go with two wheels instead of four she said, “I wanted to learn because it will be cheaper gas wise, and because I’ve ridden with my dad since middle school.”

Barragan said she has always enjoyed riding her dad’s, so her buying one for herself was no question. But a slight damper in Barragan’s road travels comes from the Department of Motor Vehicles closing down, and only open with appointments. Barragan said she wished she could ride every day, but without a full license, she is only able to ride about three days a week with her dad but she enjoys every second of it.

Hutchinson sophomore Josie Harris on the other hand learned a more hands-on skill. Harris was taken to creating a certain kind of jewelry. She works at Stratica, the underground salt museum located in southeastern Hutchinson. One perk of her job is she gets to take home different pieces of salt that fall onto the ground. By collecting these different pieces of all shapes and sizes, she has taken to designing them into unique sets of earrings.

“At Stratica, we sell wire-wrapped salt earrings,” she said. “I decided that I didn’t really want to pay for them, so why not make them.”

Harris has been designing her own earrings since mid-June and said that she plans on making a bulk amount and selling them to the mine to be sold in the gift shop.

These skills are just a few examples of what others have been doing over our long quarantine break. With summer coming to an end there are still plenty of skills to learn so just get out and get curious.

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