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1. Attend U.Va. Virtual Town Halls
If you are a proud Hoo like me, you were probably incredibly tempted to sign up for the last U.Va. Virtual Town Hall to express your thoughts on the University's handling of the past few weeks. While my plans were hampered by an ill-timed lecture, attending a town hall is a fantastic way to remain civically engaged — all while connecting with your fellow Cavaliers!
2. Go to fraternity igloos — on Club Penguin
In case you weren’t aware, fraternity and sorority rush happened the past few weeks. While they were unfortunately limited to six-person gatherings, one way to get a feel for Rugby Road in a COVID-mandated virtual world is to deck out your Club Penguin igloo with some sick decor and get the party started. Meet me on the Blizzard server — I’ll be on at approximately 10 p.m. every night.
3. Make a Spotify playlist with your friends
I cannot personally recommend this option because my music taste is the punching bag of my friend group. It’s funny — Coldplay has sold over 100 million records worldwide, yet my friends start whining if “Clocks” comes on one time. Listen — if it were a bad song, it wouldn’t have been so popular. I’m clearly not alone in liking it. You can’t just ban an entire artist from a playlist, Margaret. Who gave you that power, Margaret?
4. Have a presentation night
A presentation night is a fun activity in which you and your friends make PowerPoint presentations about random topics and present them to each other. It can easily be done over Zoom and is incredibly fun if you and your friends have a bunch of inside jokes about each other. Well, it is fun until your friend makes a presentation titled “Comparing My Friends to Monopoly Pieces” and gives you the iron. Then you just spend the whole night crying, wondering where you went wrong.
5. Enjoy some online game nights
Board games don’t have to be bored games. While a lot of people hear games and think of Monopoly, there are other exciting activities online you can use to end your friendships in awful, bitter, catastrophic, car-crash-style fights. I still don’t understand the rules to whatever Avalon is, but I do know that I miss you, Jack, and I really hope you unblock my number soon.
6. Forward cursed email chains
Remember those emails? “Forward this message to ten people, or else Bloody Mary will appear in your room?” I haven’t seen one of those since my middle school days, but now would be a great time for them to make a resurgence. It’s a great excuse to hit up nine of your closest pals — and to lift an ancient witch’s curse off yourself in the process.
7. Start a virtual book club
If there is one thing students love doing in their free time after reading a textbook, it is reading fiction for fun! A book club is a great excuse to read, socialize and discuss the use of symbolism as presented in “Jane Eyre.” The only downside is that there are only so many hours in a day to read, and you may never feel like you've done enough.
8. Become addicted to online poker
Online poker is firmly the best Zoom activity you can do. For one, it is an excuse to wear sunglasses and a hoodie indoors — which is absolutely worth doing just for the laughs. But most importantly, you can make legitimate money off of your least intelligent and least risk-averse friends. Oftentimes, they are the same people. If you are reading this, Jonathan, thank you for paying for my last fifteen trips to Cook Out, you idiot.
9. Don’t bother
Is there even an end in sight? What guarantee is there that Feb. 26 will be the end of these restrictions? And what are we going back to, even? COVID-19 won’t be gone then. Heck, it won’t be gone this semester. Or maybe even this summer. Do we have enough vaccines? Can we get back to normal? Is there even a normal anymore? Movie theaters, concerts, football games — are they a thing of the past? Are we just cogs in a Zoom-fueled machine, walking towards a life of some mundane nothingness?
10. Netflix watch parties
Don’t worry about any of that garbage! Things will get better. Just watch some TV with your friends and relax. There may be nothing good on Netflix anymore, but that’s an article for another time.
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