Are you bored...?
  Boredom. A word that evokes many images and almost all of them bad. Why is that? Our society views boredom as a disease which must be instantly treated when caught. I remember how quickly my dad tried to find something for me to do when I came moping up to him to complain about my boredom. Even now if my younger sister comes up to me and says, she's bored I instantly try to list a slew of things she can do, desperately trying to cut off the progress of the infection as quickly as possible. In fact, our society has invented a vaccine for boredom, a preventative measure called the cell phone that injects novelty in our lives the exact instant we feel even a trickling of boredom arising within us. It's incredible how fast people pull out their phones the minute a webpage loads too slowly, the second a text gets boring, the millisecond a conversation stalls. Going out every night, or joining a frat, or watching Netflix, or scrolling through Instagram, or...the list goes on. It seems so much of our actions are as much as a distraction as they are an escape from boredom. Why are we so afraid of being bored? Why do we feel the need to be continuously bombarded with newness? Whenever I get bored I instantly get the feeling I'm doing something wrong. After all, you only have a certain amount of time on this planet, shouldn't you try to make sure you at least aren't bored during it? Shouldn't you try to be maximizing your time before your ever-dimming flame of life is blown out? I guess from that angle it's genuinely scary being bored. It's scary to think that you are misspending life by being bored instead of doing something...doing anything even if it is just pulling out your phones to scroll past a blur of images. Because the alternative is just too frightening.
  Almost the same worry arises with unhappiness. It's extremely difficult not to feel that when you are unhappy, you are doing something wrong with your life. And maybe that's why boredom is as terrifying as it is. Because boredom is almost always followed by unhappiness. So should our life just be constantly trying to outrun boredom for as long as we can? And what if we trip on a snag in the road and the feeling catches up to us? The road of life is full of cracks and divots, and it's almost inevitable you're going to stumble at least once. What then? Did you do something wrong if you're lying on the ground and boredom envelops you? Are those moments when you're struggling to get back up moments where you are wasting life? I guess the answer is those moments are what you want them to be. If the moment you feel unhappy, or the moment you feel bored you fervently tell yourself that you are failing to enjoy life, then those moments will genuinely be failures to you. It's tough to see what Cool contributes to this discussion. Because it's hard to argue that Cool relishes boredom or implores you to seek out. After all, a huge critique Cool has on our modern culture is how boring everyone and everything has become. Not only the monotonous cycle of studying and working but the predictability across songs, movies, or even people. And yet, I don't think Cool seeks to eradicate boredom out of our lives either. Because, like unhappiness, Cool sees boredom as not only inevitable but also a chance to reflect and grow. So I guess the distinction is being boring vs. being bored. The former Cool vehemently opposes, but the latter Cool realizes the importance of. But what I can't wrap my head around is if Cool advises you to seek out boredom. Just like I don't understand if Cool suggests you seek out unhappiness. I can comprehend Cool's stance on preexisting boredom or unhappiness as vehicles for growth, but I'm not sure if it preaches to actively seek those feelings out. I mean one of the pillars of Cool is hedonism, right? And it seems like you are taking a sledgehammer to the pillar if you simultaneously advocate the pursuit of unhappiness as well as pleasure. But I guess that's the paradox of Cool, and one that I think is an incredible barrier for anyone seeking to become cooler. Who would want to follow a philosophy where you are to endeavor for unhappiness or boredom especially if you're not already feeling those sentiments? It seems extremely counterintuitive.
  For me at least, I find it extremely hard to remain bored. Next time you're eating with someone just try and sit there with neither party saying anything. It's uneasy, uncomfortable and almost impossible to remain in that delicate state for too long without someone either pulling out there phone or saying something. And I guess this phenomenon might be part of the answer to a question we posed at the beginning of the semester: Why are more people not Cool? Because in Cool you have to actively grapple with the feeling of boredom instead of distracting yourself from it. I mean think about how many opportunities there are for boredom to arise during a long walk or lengthy reading. And this time there is no pulling out your phone. You have to deal with the feeling of boredom, learn how to lasso it in, and keep the knot around it tight. Like many things in Cool, it really does take a lot of effort. A lot of effort to be content with boredom, to view it as a shadow that will always follow you no matter how often you pretend its not there. For boredom is a passenger with everyone but while most people stiffly ignore it, Cool turns around and shakes its hand. It's much easier to drink so much that you know you'll never be bored during a party. Much easier to join a frat so you know you'll never be bored during college. Much easier to constantly be on your phone so you know you'll never be bored during life. It's much harder, however, to spend your time riding a bike down a dusty sidewalk or taking the paintbrush to a canvas even if it means occasionally being in the unsettling but important position of being bored.
  I want to end this post by trying to understand the boredom in my own life. Because being premed means a lot of time being bored. And I guess my question is, is this boredom any different from the boredom that might arise during taking a walk or writing a book? Is this boredom any different from the boredom that Cool seeks to embrace rather than eliminate? I don't know, but my intuition is yes, it is different. The boredom that Cool tolerates is boredom that occurs during the seeking of pleasure. Cool's okay with the sporadic boredom when you're, say, composing a song but is more critical with consistent and routine boredom that is an indication that something is wrong in your life. And maybe that's why its so hard to resist going to your phone or striking up a random conversation when you're studying. Maybe that's why workplace drama and pranks are so rampant. Because we're trying to distract ourselves from an entrenched boredom that is so deeply saturated in our culture that we must constantly distract ourselves from it. Because if you truly didn't alleviate the boredom that comes with pulling an all-nighter studying or working a desk job you hate, then you wouldn't be able to continue those activities much longer. And society needs you to continue to activities. So cue the omnipresence of the cell phone. So I guess I'm kind of contradicting what I said earlier because boredom really can mean that there is a deep-rooted issue in your life. A boredom that doesn't briefly flare during an activity you enjoy, but rather a boredom that is so ubiquitous in your life that you are attempting to constantly distract yourself from its presence. Throughout this semester I've tried to convince myself that the boredom of studying is no different from the boredom that will emerge from following Cool's lifestyle. But now I think that these two types of boredom are only similar in name, and the gravity and significance of each are vitally different.








