It can be a pain not being able to commemorate the end of our school lives with a bang by attending a convocation ceremony or going on a graduation trip with our friends and family! Despite the setbacks forced upon us by a deadly virus, we can still make a productive use of our time. To make this period productive, there are many things that we can do, such as going on internships, upgrading yourself with courses, attending trainee programmes, or even just embarking on an old or new hobby.
I personally found that trying on a new hobby was especially insightful. Considering I was not only doing something fun that I enjoyed, but I was also learning a lot about myself. I found a creative side of myself that I never had the time to develop during the paper chase in university. Furthermore, exploring my new hobby felt like I was using my time efficiently, rather than keeping myself on the constant treadmill of algorithm-generated Youtube videos. I was honing a skill and craft that might not be useful in the working world, but it assisted in keeping myself grounded, and served as an outlet for my stress to keep my mental health balanced.
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If you are looking to use the time to improve your resume, internships and traineeships are a great way to not only boost your employability, they also help you discover where your passion lies before you commit to a full-time position. With most internships and some traineeships lasting from one-month up to three-months, it is an appropriate amount of time for you to acquire a feel of an industry you might consider joining in the future. Who knows, you might uncover a whole new area of work that draws your interest, or you might realise that the industry you were about to jump headfirst into might not be what you were expecting! Either way, you would definitely benefit from an internship experience, so why not give it a shot while you have the chance?
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Lastly, because of COVID-19, universities around the world are offering a plethora of diverse, free online courses that are available for anyone to sign up. I signed up for a coding course, since it is often used in some areas of my work. I was not exactly great at it. Nevertheless, the lessons that I took were all well-made and easy to understand. Message board were also available to us students to ask the professors questions or to discuss your answers with other students. One of the best things about these courses were that they were self-paced, which means you could take the classes on different days based on your schedule. So, if you are up for learning something new or something that you might need in the present or future, I would highly recommend these as the way to go.
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I know that the entire world is currently in disarray at this moment, and this is a tough time for all of us but looking at events from a different perspective can often open a whole new world of possibilities for us, sometimes much more than we could possibly imagine. So, let’s all make the best of it, good luck!
Written by Ng Xinyao
Ng Xinyao is a psychology graduate from NTU. A writer for hobby to advocate for greater awareness of mental health issues in Asia with a research interest in the region of neuropsychology. On the flip side, Xinyao enjoys reading manga, playing puzzle games and the guitar.
References
Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (1996). Motivated closing of the mind:" Seizing" and" freezing.". Psychological review, 103(2), 263.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/sg/blog/in-flux/201104/5-ways-find-closure-the-past
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