What I’ve learned from WFH

To some extent, we all had unique experiences working from home these past two weeks this semester. I, for one, opted to move back to my Hoboken apartment after finishing the first two weeks of class online from my home, so I’ve experienced (school) work from home (WFH) to its fullest. Here is what I’ve learned from this experience, and what I wish I didn’t take for granted while I was home.

The first thing has to be my family making me home-cooked meals. I forgot how much easier life was before having to cook for myself at school. This month being home has been so nice to be able to sit back and relax a little bit more, but it is now time to get back to the world of cooking for one, packaging leftovers, and not forgetting about them and letting them go to waste. That’s one thing I often struggled with last semester — I would cook a bag of green beans, for example, eat a third of it, put it in the fridge, and they would go bad before I even remembered they were in the fridge. Planning meals ahead (and taking leftovers into account) is one way to start the semester off strong and preemptively pass the learning curve of cooking for yourself.

One thing that I missed about living in Hoboken and am so excited to get back to is (and don’t get mad at me for saying this) the walking!! I have a pretty hefty walk from my apartment on Jefferson Street to campus, and I usually make the trek two to three separate times a day. Being home, I missed hitting my Fitbit step goal everyday without even giving it a thought. Didn’t have time to exercise one day? No worries, I have 15,000 steps anyway. Meanwhile at home, I have a measly 4,000 even on a day where I workout. Being home, I have also decided that I surprisingly prefer walking to driving as a mode of transportation. I miss being able to get where you need to be in a reasonable amount of time, while getting some fresh air and moving around instead of just moving my right foot from the gas to the brake pedal with little to no exciting scenery.

I was extremely grateful to be able to see so many extended family members this holiday season for the first time in a while. It reminded me how important family is to me and how much I miss them while I am at school. It can be easy to get caught up in school work, activities, and just life itself while at school, but family is always a text or phone call away. I know I will be bothering my mom with every detail of my day just because I will miss seeing her everyday.

One thing I am grateful for upon moving back to Hoboken is the lack of choice. At home, I have piles of unread books, tons of arts and craft supplies, board games, coloring books, and more ways than I can even think of to spend my time. Not having as many choices (mainly due to lack of storage) in Hoboken definitely makes focusing on work and other tasks easier. This semester, I hope to become more decisive with choosing how to spend my free time in effort to have a successful, productive semester.

Lifestyle HACKs is an Opinion column written and created by Zoe Hack ‘24 to discuss studying guides and techniques, healthy cooking and eating, and other lifestyle tips during college life.