It’s a new semester, and therefore a new semester of talking about my new and exciting experiences at Penn State! Well, not yet actually. I’m stuck at home for a few weeks longer than expected…but that’s okay. Instead of spending my first blog post complaining about how Covid is keeping me away from Penn State’s beautiful campus, I’ll talk about the things that make being home great.

First of all, winter break was awesome. After a long semester of getting used to the amped up college workload, it felt great having a month to come home and relax. With the extra free time and the change of setting, I started to rediscover some old habits. The gyms in my area reopened, so I restarted my gym routine. My friends all came back in town, so we returned to the basketball courts where we used to play before everybody left for college. I had more time and privacy to play guitar, so I learned a bunch of new songs. Overall, it was just a rejuvenating and nostalgic break, and filling my free time with these hobbies made it exciting and rewarding.

In addition, some of my new Christmas gifts have kept me occupied while staying at home; my favorite of which being a Scarlett audio interface. By plugging a guitar, an electric, or a microphone into the device, I’m able to play and have it directly recorded to my computer, where the sound is clean and I can add any effects that I want. This gave me a nearly endless array of new sounds to play with, and that’s exactly what I did. It gave me the power to change my acoustic guitar sound to the sound of nearly any other guitar or amp, even distortion electric, and from there I was able to customize everything from levels of reverb to strength of tone and fullness of sound. My friend and I spent hours sifting through the different sounds and making riffs of our own, and with the extra few weeks at home, I’m excited to keep exploring what the Scarlett has to offer.

My favorite part of winter break was, without a doubt, my trip to North Carolina. After Christmas, 7 of my friends and I rented acheap Air BNB in the southern stretch of the Outer Banks. The area was deserted out-of-season, and therefore Covid-safe and private, making it the perfect spot for a quick winter vacation! We stayed on one of the narrowest parts of the island, so we had beautiful ocean on both sides of our house. In addition, we were only a short walk from the beach, so we took advantage of that for sunsets, sunrises, and even a fire on the beach. Along with being a fun week with my friends, it was a nice change of scenery compared to Pennsylvania in the winter.

All in all, being home is pleasant. It’s good to settle back into old routines, hang out with old friends, and live in the area you know best. However, even though I’ve made the most of my time at home, I sure can’t wait to get back on campus.