We don’t know how to be bored.
You know that feeling. Yep, that nostalgic feeling of doing nothing. I’m a millennial so yep, I’m about to reference the golden decade, the 90s. And i don’t really care for anyone else’s opinion. It is the best decade!
But there was one problem, I was bored…a lot! I’d yell, mom, I’m bored! (in that classic annoying tone). But my Guatemalan mom would simply give me a chore to do. “No pues ponte a limpiar” she would say. Why did I say anything?
But Saturday mornings were the dream! The one time I’d gladly wake up early. It’s 15 till 8, but I’d already been awake. I run to get my lucky charms ready and look for the remote. Cartoons are about to play! Mom and dad don’t mind, they get to sleep in.
But it could only happen on Saturday mornings and it was glorious!
Now? Everyday can be a Saturday Morning. Monday? Let’s go! We can get that nostalgic feeling as soon as we wake up. Guys, we’ve rid the world of boredom! We never have to feel that dreadful thing ever again.
But it loses its charm, doesn’t it? No longer are Saturday mornings even special because we’ve had that feeling all week. Ugh, and worse, now we feel trapped. We need that rush, that dopamine hit. Because God forbid we ever feel bored again.
When was the last time you sat down and did nothing? Imagine it:
You’re sitting there in line waiting for your coffee. Nothing to do. You look around, what is it that everyone is doing? Probably staring down at their phone, right? What do you do? We don’t even think about it. We reach down into our pocket and check our glowing rectangle. We think: has anyone texted? Emailed? No? Alright then, maybe a little scroll through Instagram. Nothing happening there, let’s go to Tiktok. That was hysterical! Boom, coffee is ready.
We don’t allow ourselves to be bored. We’re anxious and honestly too invested in things that aren’t any of our business. Sure we know what’s happening, but for what? So that we could argue with a figment of our imagination?
Take me back to being bored! I want to be able to sit still and do nothing.
Creatives, we’ve got all the creative inspo in the world. Our moodboards are full and what do we do with it? We make nothing. Our dreams go unlived. We waste hours until we waste our days. Only to waste a life.
When was the last time you were bored?
I’m married now, I have 5 boys, 2-3 jobs on a given day. Someone asks: “how was your week?” What’s the reply: “busy”.
Work, soccer practice, finance budgeting, text the friend, plan for school, workout, make food, take vitamins, send that final email, get good sleep, wake up early, rinse and repeat.
So I get it. Getting that dopamine hit feels good! A break from it all. Who wants to be bored? What’s the alternative, sitting there quietly with nothing to do?
What has getting quite ever done for me? Here’s what I’ve experienced, As soon as I get quiet, I come face to face with reality. With who I really am. It’s not so glamorous, is it? Then the fear of facing it is too much. Dealing with that pain, ugh, no. I want to feel the joy of life, the blissful peace, but not pain. But we’ve invented a solution, right? A way out of our pain? Or maybe just another way to distract ourselves from it.
We can’t get quite enough to hear our own thoughts.
Time passes by and we realize: when was the last time we had our own opinion as opposed to someone else's? When was the last time I allowed myself to think for myself?
Here’s what might be worse. We also don’t know how to allow others to be bored either.
For all the fuss about tech in school (which I agree with, get tech out!) we don’t even want to see kids bored at the grocery store or God forbid the restaurant. I’ve seen the glaring eyes at a restaurant when our boys are laughing and playing games. Yeah, they’re loud. And yes, they have tantrums, you know feelings. Honestly, it’s why some parents avoid it all together. And yet we criticize the parent handing a tablet to their kid. You can’t have it both ways!
We prefer a quiet kid that sits there like, you know, a robot. We don’t allow our kids to be human. Maybe because we struggle to be human.
Let’s be human again.
Get rid of the tablet, but be ready to welcome all sorts of feelings. Let kids be loud. Let them be bored. Let them run around. Stop being such a stick in the mud (did I really just use that phrase?). Be fun! Make faces at them. Play peek-a-boo with kid on the other booth.
Don’t be so bothered by things. Let strangers interrupt your day. It’s fine, you’ll live. Like actually live.
Try chatting with your neighbor. Yep, even that annoying one.
Put the phone down, be a boring person and read a book.
Or go on a walk.
I went on a boring walk today. I heard cars, parrots (yes, I said parrots), the dude on drugs yelling profanities, and dogs barking. It was quite nice.
I feel like an old man inspecting plants. Dude, the apple tree we planted this spring has sprouted apples. Apples, y’all! I call my kids when I find swallowtail caterpillars. We call them “poopsies”. Look ‘em up, you’ll see why. There’s so much wonder to be found.
And here’s what you might encounter in the boredom of life. There’s more wonder in a bee face deep in a flower looking for pollen than our eyes buried deep in our phones looking for the next entertainment hit.
Go be a boring person. Live for heaven's sake!
