The Daily Bongo

I have decided that something must be seriously wrong with me. Why you ask? Because, believe it or not, I am not bored when I am alone by myself. Why should I be? I had a bunionectomy on July 8, and spent the first six weeks after that at home without putting any weight on the foot. Now I am allowed to put weight on my foot, and have been going to physical therapy three times a week since last week, but I still am not able to get around very well on my own. Since I do alot of walking in my job, I haven't gotten clearance yet to return to work, although I think that I will be back in the next two weeks. Since I have been off of work, I have been hearing non-stop from everyone that I must be so bored that I am actually looking forward to returning to work. How does one address the topic of being bored when the reality is that I am far from it? As my boyfriend has always said, I am really good at self entertainment, and it has come in handy over the past several weeks.

Boredom is a state of mind that is totally up to the individual. I believe that a contributing factor to boredom is a dislike of one's self. There are so many things that an individual can do that would prevent boredom, and in the present day, there are a plethora of external items that can keep us entertained. There are books, DVDs, television, computers, games, you name it. So how can a person be bored? So I believe that the reason people think that I must be bored is because of the lack of human interaction. In their minds I am sitting at home by myself and must be desperate. It has nothing to do with the number of solitary options that are open to me. It comes down to the fact that I am alone with myself, and I must find myself bad company. Now this could be a comment about me. It could be that these people don't enjoy my company and wonder how I could. However, I don't think that's the case because of the frequency with which the comment is bandied about.

The answer must be that people aren't always happy with their own company. How sad it must be to be trapped in a body with a person that you don't like to spend time with. To me some of the best times are spent by myself, thinking about things that I would like to do or contemplating my feelings about a topic or a current event. If there is a book handy then I have other people with whom I could spend some time. I can crawl into the author's mind and get a fresh perspective on life. The characters of the book can come alive and take on a life of their own. I always look forward to a series book. This is a book that returns us to the adventures of characters that we met in a previous book (or books). It's like renewing an acquaintance with an old friend. I wonder what life the author envisions for the character and I marvel at the fact that the characters have found that life in the author's brain. I have been plotting a mystery story myself for awhile now, and the most enjoyable part of the experience is fleshing out the characters in my mind, I imagine that authors are very rarely bored because they have so many things going on in their heads and so many stories to tell themselves.

So how does one get over boredom? The first step would be to identify the cause. Is it because there truly is nothing to do, or is it because the person does not like his/her company? How does someone start liking him or herself? If I knew the answer to that, I would be a rich woman. I would say that the first step to getting to like yourself is to spend time with yourself alone. It doesn't have to be for a long period of time. Start out with an hour by yourself in your room. Don't turn on the radio or television. Don't pick up a book or distract yourself. Don't nap. Just spend some time alone thinking. What would you think about? That's up to you. Perhaps you might want to think about your job, your life, or some hidden desire that you have. Whatever it is, take the time alone and think. Before you know it, you might find that you are looking forward to these alone times, and you might find that you are no longer bored when you can't interact with others.

So don't ask if I'm bored. I'm not. My day is so full that I wish that I had more time to spend with myself. I hope the same for you if you ever find yourself home bound for an extended period of time.

August 31, 2005