I’m Bored

Thoughts & Reflections

It’s summer. Even when we love school (which we absolutely do!), summer still has this magical appeal. Maybe it’s the long days, maybe it’s the sunshine, maybe it’s sandals and swimming and sand, but it really just is a wonderful time of year. We set goals, like a nap every day and making this the summer we wear enough sunscreen and planting a vegetable garden and remembering to work on our goals prior to the last week before school resumes. There are swimming lessons and vacations and plans and playdates and camp. But no matter what, at some point, it comes: The Boredom.

What?! How is this possible?? This is the most magical time of the year!! But bored is when the magic happens.

“I’m bored” is such a gift. We’re so scheduled and even regimented. Hurry hurry hurry! It’s what daily life so often requires. If we’re early, it’s because we’ve forgotten something. There’s never enough time to complete the to-do list, which good thing it’s now electronic because there isn’t a paper long enough to include it.

“When we’re sometimes so busy we don’t have time for bored, bored is a gift.”

Summer, with endless free time and opportunity, can also be a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum. We don’t have any plans today, what do we do? The world is our oyster, what do we do? We can do anything, what do we do? When we’re unscheduled, we have to choose how to spend our time, and sometimes, it’s been so long since we’ve been in a place to make these kinds of choices, we’ve forgotten how. Without entertainment, we become “bored,” which is just the spark creativity, imagination, summer has been made for.

We remember how to entertain ourselves. We remember old favorite toys, re-read dirty and dog-eared series, dig in the dirt and climb trees and skin knees. Boredom is the gift of summer. These are the best days, learning to ride a bike or making something with found objects. Building a fort. Using up all the crayons. Making a structure that uses every single Lego brick. Cleaning the playroom.

Bored is good. Bored is what happens right before something joyful, something self-directed, something purposeful. When we’re sometimes so busy we don’t have time for bored, bored is a gift.