Being bored is overrated

Boredom: a feeling that comes and goes, but always manages to return. As young adults in college, we’re told that these will be the “best years of our lives,” and that we’ll dream about reliving these days the moment our feet leave the stage, hands clutching onto our degree.

However, boredom seems to be a consistent issue day to day.

Monday through Friday, class after class, as exciting as college may be, it’s incredibly easy to get locked into the repetition of attending class, grinding out schoolwork and then rotting in bed.

This boring routine — disguised as an organized, structured way of living — becomes a rut and is rather impossible to escape.

After the hibernation of “J-term,” pangs of boredom are ones students come to know all too well. The repetition of doing nothing for six weeks becomes quite draining.

Now I’m not saying that having unplanned moments of relaxation and without routine are bad, but rather that boredom is simply the struggle of finding a way to be comfortable in your own presence without the need of stimulation.

Although boredom is a feeling that is not going away anytime soon, we should change the way we view it. It may be the key to changing a lazy day of boredom into a fulfilling one.

Obviously, the first thing to come to mind when battling boredom is to pick up a hobby. While hobbies are probably the best defense against periods of dullness, most people think their chosen hobby is the best hobby.

When choosing a good way to fill your time, it is crucial to understand that you need to put your time into something that aligns with your passions. I often give myself lofty goals I cannot fulfill, like reading consistently, despite not reading a book in full since the third grade.

But the second I invested my time into an avenue such as music or DJing, my hobby no longer felt like a task required to stimulate these otherwise empty moments, but it truly improved my day-to-day.

Hobbies need to be extensions of our interests for them to become useful ways to spend time. The best way to find your passions is to find yourself.

Miami campus offers a variety of clubs and things to do, but activities as simple as cooking can be quite engaging and a breath of fresh air from dining hall food. It could be something as simple as listening to a new album every week.

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Even though the concept of self can be a daunting thought, it is the prime reason making boredom uncomfortable. No matter how many hobbies you take up or clubs you join, you will always be uneasy with boredom if you’re incapable of appreciating time by yourself.

You don’t need to spend all your hours of free time realigning your chakras practicing meditation, but learning to appreciate the self and the time you spend with yourself is crucial. Because there's a little alone time every now and then, it can be much more than a lonely fact of life.

Kiser Young is a first-year strategic communication major from Beavercreek, Ohio. He is a contributor to both the opinion and entertainment sections at The Student and is a District 8 senator for the Associated Student Government.

Youngk20@miamioh.edu