What Can I Do Now?

Or How Being Bored Was a Good Thing
by Jody Feldman

Like nearly every kid on the planet, I couldn’t wait for summer vacation. No homework, no tests, no waking up when my body still needed its sleep. The first week was so great. The second week, too. But as week three crept in, the shininess began to fade.
As I recall, the mornings sped by, but come mid-afternoon... 

Me: Mom, I’m bored. What can I do?
Mom: *offers suggestion*
Me: Nah
Mom: *offers another suggestion*
Me: Nah
Mom: *offers three more suggestions*

I had the best mom ever, but even she couldn’t help me figure out that one perfectly satisfying activity to shorten those long, boring afternoons.

While certain occasions stick out – the family road trips, the once-a-year visit to Holiday Hill amusement park, the times when we got to swim at my aunt and uncle’s pool – it just might be those long, boring afternoons, having nothing to do but to search deep within, that best trained me to be a writer.

Today, when I'm able to take an hour or two with only the sounds of birds chirping outside the window, I come up with some of my bigger ideas and, just as important, the smaller ones to enrich, enlighten, and inspire the stories my characters need to tell. 

And I have my summers to thank for that.