Photo Courtesy Fernando Javier Alvarez
Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER
UTRGV students have found new hobbies with the increase in free time they’ve had during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fernando Javier Alvarez, a mechanical engineering sophomore, said he has become invested in cycling, specifically gravel biking.
Alvarez said he started with a mountain bike but changed to a bike for gravel roads.
He said his background in mechanical engineering helped him build his first gravel bike.
“I started gravel riding and I started very slow, so, like, seven to eight miles per ride,” Alvarez said. “You find gravel roads all over the [Rio Grande] Valley, so I would ride at the beginning, just like, two or three times per week.”
He said now he goes on 30- to 45-mile bike rides four times a week and averages about 100 miles a week.
Alvarez said he even got a job at Sun & Ski Sports located in La Plaza Mall in McAllen, which he would have never obtained if COVID-19 had not happened and his interest in biking had not grown.
He became friends with the small community of gravel cyclists in the Valley by working at the bike shop.
“We started getting to know each other and just started biking with them. … Now, they’re like a big friend group that I have now,” Alvarez said.
He recommends people pick up biking but not buy the cheapest bike.
“You want something you can trust because what if you’re 10 to 15 miles out and then some catastrophic failure happens [to your bike] and you’re going to have to walk 15 miles back,” Alvarez said.
Fernanda Rodriguez, a mass communication major, said she also found a new hobby.
Rodriguez said before the pandemic she was into painting and makeup but did not have time for both.
“Because now I had more time on my hands, I didn’t have to choose between makeup or painting,” she said. “So I started doing painting as well and I ended up just really focusing on that craft during COVID.”
Rodriguez has learned about her own personal style of art and has even made some paintings for her dad’s dentist office in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico.
Asked if she would have picked up painting as a hobby if COVID-19 had not happened, she replied, she doesn’t think so.
Rodriguez said without that extra free time, she would have just stuck to working on her makeup skills rather than another activity.
She said lately with her online classes making her busy, she still tries to find time to paint weekly or biweekly.
Photo Courtesy Fernanda Rodriguez
Psychology senior Alejandro Garcia said he finally got into a hobby he’s been trying for a couple of years.
Garcia said in 2017 he bought his first camera, a Fujifilm X-T3 but never fully got into it.
“It was because of COVID and all the free time that I started getting into photography,” he said.
Garcia said he has noticed a lot of people like himself getting into new hobbies since the pandemic.
He said that with a free elective this semester, he decided to take a class on photography, which has helped him learn more about his camera and photography in general.
“If someone is trying to, like, look for a new hobby during COVID, I would say that, to those people, to take their time,” Garcia said. “I mean, we’re still a little bit far from finding a cure.”
