Like all of us, I’ve been super bored in quarantine, so I tried a few viral DIY trends, but my experiences with them have been less than ideal. With every social media platform containing countless ways to self-improve, I jumped on the bandwagon in hopes of finding a new hobby.

Without further ado, I present some of those trends and the unsatisfying moments I’ve had with them.

Tie-Dyeing Everything In Sight

Filling your room with the smell of bleach for clothes you will never wear seems to be quite popular right now. Some lucky people will produce the perfectly cropped, tie-dyed tank top, while others, like me, will end up with a very orange-looking pair of sweatpants. If you try this trend, be prepared for either outcome.

At-Home Haircuts

Why is it the moment girls are in a moment of turmoil that we resort to cutting our hair? What makes this process so transformative? And what is it about bangs that make you a new person? I like to keep my hair short so as soon as it creeps toward my collar bone, I go to the salon. But in this instance, I went to my mom. My hair ended up being too long in some places and too short in others because neither of us know how layers work. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be sitting here with uneven hair until September.

Painting My Emotions Away

We’ve all seen those cute VSCO girls with beautifully painted jeans. I painted a perfectly nice pair of jeans and now I regret it. I’m still debating whether or not they look good and if I’ll have the strength to wear them in front of strangers in New York. Either way, my thrifted Levi jeans will forever despise me.

The Beloved Whipped Coffee

Whipped coffee will be the death of me. My mom is yelling at me to stop using her instant coffee, my dad is yelling that we don’t have enough sugar and I’m yelling that this drink isn’t  “nonessential.” However, it does taste really good. So I will chance death and continue to whip instant coffee, sugar and hot water together.

Trying to Get A Six-Pack

It’s wild to me how many people started exercising just because of this quarantine — shouldn’t they try to implement it in their regular daily routine anyway? The resurgence of Chloe Ting and Alexis Ren’s workouts have forced me into laying on a yoga mat and wiggling around in the hopes of gaining abs in two weeks. Here’s a suggestion I think everyone needs to hear: work out for you! Work out to make yourself feel better and not because you feel peer pressured to do so!

Baking. So Much Baking.

This is purely a question of how many chocolate chip cookies my household can sustain. Baking is hard. It takes time to become good at it. You need a ton of ingredients. And if you’re like me, you either end up burning or ruining your recipe completely. Besides, it can’t be healthy to make four different baked goods all in one Sunday afternoon … can it? 

If “Surviving the 2020 Quarantine” was a Steinhardt class, I would fail. On the bright side, trying these trends did shave down my seven hours of daily screen time, so try all of these out for yourself and see if they work better for you.

Email Anna Cuciurean-Zapan at [email protected].