The last year has been very hard and challenging for all of us in countless ways. Thinking about that, it can be tough to see any positives that have come out of the last 12 months. That being said, I have found one constructive thing to have been rediscovering old hobbies from earlier in my life that I had gotten away from for whatever reason. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has shut down nearly all leisure activities, I’ve been using it as an opportunity to rediscover past habits.

For me, that has mostly taken the form of reclaiming old TV shows I used to watch when I was a kid. I’m talking shows I watched 10-15 years ago, ones I mostly forgot that existed. But during all this, they started coming back to me, probably as some form of coping with the pandemic. I thought to myself this would be a prime opportunity to get back into some of them.

One show I used to love as a kid where I would record episodes and save them on our family DVR was Grounded for Life. Grounded for Life was a sitcom that ran from 2001-05 about an American Irish Catholic middle class family living on Staten Island in New York City. Each episode would normally revolve around one member of the family messing something up and the rest of the episode focused on re-telling that story and how the family would attempt to fix the mistake. It’s probably not the best show in the world, but for me, it’s filled with childhood nostalgia, so I’ve enjoyed rewatching it.

Another series I watched again during the pandemic was Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was one of my favourite shows as a kid, and it still holds up watching again so many years later. I think it’s one of those shows that even though it’s designed with a younger audience in mind, it’s really for all ages, and it never gets old. I honestly might have enjoyed watching it more than when I was a kid.

If you’ve run out of ideas for things to do during the pandemic, maybe try watching some old shows again. You never know what you might rediscover! Feel free to share your recommendations in the comments too!