As kids, adults told us that ‘only boring people get bored.’ There was a sound logic and clear lesson to this aphorism. If we were creative and we were interested in the world around us, we could entertain ourselves. Two frisbees, two spoons, a lab table, and a ping pong ball could turn into a perfect ping pong table, and rocks on the playground an opportunity for a rock throwing contest. As kids growing up in an era of constant technological access, this is a lesson which we, perhaps more than any generation prior to us, needed to be reminded of. The entertainment did not need to be provided for us. We could be the entertainment.
Life without Boredom
During the first few months of the Fellowship, I hardly, if ever, felt bored. My day-to-day life was still filled with plenty of the mundane tasks which characterize adult life, but I wasn’t bored. I was adjusting to a new country, a new job, new friends, new food, new everything. My daily chores took up most of my time. When I was done with them, it was time to reset and prepare for the next day. There were always new things to learn, new places in Ahmedabad to see, and new foods to try. Even the days where I stayed in and rested were far from boring. I was never at a loss for what to do next. Just lying on my bed and listening to a podcast about running was enough sometimes.
The Return of Boredom
One day, about five months into the Fellowship, I suddenly realized I was bored. Somehow, the idea of going to the dosa place or the thali place nearby no longer excited me. It’s not that their food was bad, it’s that I knew what to expect.
I was embarrassed. Only boring people get bored. I was living on the other side of the world in a city with over 7 million people and I was bored. How boring must I be?
I was also a little proud. I may be a boring person, I thought, but at least I was a boring person who had adjusted to life in Ahmedabad.
On Boredom
Boredom has continued to return to my life from time-to-time in the last two months. It would be easy to bemoan this as an unfortunate part of adult life—an evil to be subdued in pursuit of becoming a more interesting person. But, I have come to find value in the occasional return of boredom. During one of these moments of boredom, I suddenly found clarity about what I wanted to do after the Fellowship. Boredom is also what led me to think more about how I could use my time after work better and to recommit to reading every night. Most books, inventions, and organizations must have been born when their conceptualizer was bored. When they were so bored with what they were doing that all they could do is think about something else, something new.
Leaning into Boredom
At any moment, we can interrupt our internal monologues by turning on our favorite podcast or album. Basic daily tasks like brushing our teeth, showering, or walking to the corner to buy milk can be turned into opportunities for enrichment. Access to this infinite catalogue is one of my favorite parts of modern life, but sometimes it comes at the cost of my own thoughts.
I don’t want to be bored all the time, but, in my final few months in Ahmedabad, I am trying to take a few minutes each day to turn off the podcast, look around, and lean in to the boredom a bit.
