Lockdown Lows? Not for me.

Lockdown life has affected the whole country with every individual having a different story to tell. As a final year student, our founder Alex, tells us her experience of working on her final major project whilst a global pandemic takes place.

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The thought, and reality, of lockdown, brings many people uncontrollable anxiety and fear for the future and rightly so. Me? To be honest, not really. I’m one of the lucky ones that can say lockdown has not been that bad at all for me.

I am currently sat in the spare room, that at the beginning of this year, with the addition of my £16 desk from Ikea, a whiteboard and a new pen pot, became my office. I have a dog at my feet who twitches and murmurs in his sleep and if I look to my left I can see out of a window onto my very quiet street. I sit here, at my desk, most days with my headphones on and tap away at my laptop ‘creating magic’, as they say.

The concept behind my major project, as a final year student studying Fashion Communication at Northumbria University, surrounds the themes of positivity, happiness and kindness. Three words which have just become that little bit more relevant in the situation the country, and the world, currently finds itself in. I am creating an online-based platform called ‘Smile’ that aims to cheer people up and, you guessed it, make them smile. My project focuses on the pure simplicity of happiness and how it can be found in everyday life.

Before all of this happened, I had brainstormed and brainstormed some more to come up with the final outcomes of my project. I set off to create a website and a subscription box service that would allow people to discover what makes them happy, lift spirits and simply boost happiness. I knew my project wouldn’t heavily depend on photoshoots or other people at all in fact. I had a vision in my mind of working on this project online and by producing digital imagery through good ol’ Photoshop in the comfort of my own home. Oh, look. That’s exactly what I have been doing!

I am fully aware that I am very, very lucky to be in the situation I am in and I know I could be a lot, lot more stressed. I know of course mates who have had to shift their entire projects to work around the current situation with shoots cancelled and plans utterly shattered.

People who know me will tell you, I am probably the most organised person they know. I love a good ‘to-do list’ and I plan my weeks, my days and even sometimes hour by hour what I will be doing on a particular day. To some, that may sound a little bit over the top and the realist in me will agree with them. However, I strive on planning and I can say for certain, I am definitely more productive when I know exactly what I am doing and when I have to do it by. And I think that this is where lockdown has actually benefitted me in so many ways. Yes, I have had my fair share of wobbles when the news comes on and yes, I have made the most of spending these strange times with my family but overall, lockdown has enabled me to fully, properly and utterly crack on and I love it!

I am not really a procrastinator and I’ll admit that lockdown has meant some of my working days have been particularly long, but I have really enjoyed just getting on and fully absorbing myself in my final major project.

So, when I see social media full of ‘boredom busters’ and ‘things to do in lockdown’, I can’t say I can really relate. I, probably along with many other people, have been the busiest I have been in a really long time and I’m absolutely loving it!

Coronavirus has stolen my graduation though, and I not too happy about that! Graduation is something I had been looking forward to ever since I attended my sister’s a few years ago - getting all dressed up, celebrating with friends and the official start of my life as a graduate. For the time being, that won’t be a reality and despite rearrangements, it does still feel as though the official ending of my degree has been robbed.

I know though, that when this is all over, graduation will be even more special as it will be a true celebration of all the extra hard work we have all had to put in, over the 3 years and particularly in the last 3 months.

The whole country has been tested to the extreme, including us as young creatives too. We have had to work around this virus standing in our way but, I am proud of the work I have achieved and am certainly proud to be a part of the infamous corona class of 2020.

The thought, and reality, of lockdown, brings many people uncontrollable anxiety and fear for the future and rightly so. Me? To be honest, not really. I’m one of the lucky ones that can say lockdown has not been that bad at all for me.

I am currently sat in the spare room, that at the beginning of this year, with the addition of my £16 desk from Ikea, a whiteboard and a new pen pot, became my office. I have a dog at my feet who twitches and murmurs in his sleep and if I look to my left I can see out of a window onto my very quiet street. I sit here, at my desk, most days with my headphones on and tap away at my laptop ‘creating magic’, as they say.

The concept behind my major project, as a final year student studying Fashion Communication at Northumbria University, surrounds the themes of positivity, happiness and kindness. Three words which have just become that little bit more relevant in the situation the country, and the world, currently finds itself in. I am creating an online-based platform called ‘Smile’ that aims to cheer people up and, you guessed it, make them smile. My project focuses on the pure simplicity of happiness and how it can be found in everyday life.

Before all of this happened, I had brainstormed and brainstormed some more to come up with the final outcomes of my project. I set off to create a website and a subscription box service that would allow people to discover what makes them happy, lift spirits and simply boost happiness. I knew my project wouldn’t heavily depend on photoshoots or other people at all in fact. I had a vision in my mind of working on this project online and by producing digital imagery through good ol’ Photoshop in the comfort of my own home. Oh, look. That’s exactly what I have been doing!

I am fully aware that I am very, very lucky to be in the situation I am in and I know I could be a lot, lot more stressed. I know of course mates who have had to shift their entire projects to work around the current situation with shoots cancelled and plans utterly shattered.

People who know me will tell you, I am probably the most organised person they know. I love a good ‘to-do list’ and I plan my weeks, my days and even sometimes hour by hour what I will be doing on a particular day. To some, that may sound a little bit over the top and the realist in me will agree with them. However, I strive on planning and I can say for certain, I am definitely more productive when I know exactly what I am doing and when I have to do it by. And I think that this is where lockdown has actually benefitted me in so many ways. Yes, I have had my fair share of wobbles when the news comes on and yes, I have made the most of spending these strange times with my family but overall, lockdown has enabled me to fully, properly and utterly crack on and I love it!

I am not really a procrastinator and I’ll admit that lockdown has meant some of my working days have been particularly long, but I have really enjoyed just getting on and fully absorbing myself in my final major project.

So, when I see social media full of ‘boredom busters’ and ‘things to do in lockdown’, I can’t say I can really relate. I, probably along with many other people, have been the busiest I have been in a really long time and I’m absolutely loving it!

Coronavirus has stolen my graduation though, and I not too happy about that! Graduation is something I had been looking forward to ever since I attended my sister’s a few years ago - getting all dressed up, celebrating with friends and the official start of my life as a graduate. For the time being, that won’t be a reality and despite rearrangements, it does still feel as though the official ending of my degree has been robbed.

I know though, that when this is all over, graduation will be even more special as it will be a true celebration of all the extra hard work we have all had to put in, over the 3 years and particularly in the last 3 months.

The whole country has been tested to the extreme, including us as young creatives too. We have had to work around this virus standing in our way but, I am proud of the work I have achieved and am certainly proud to be a part of the infamous corona class of 2020.

How has your lockdown life changed? Let us know in the comments.