Feeling bored

Not that often, to be honest, because my phone never gives me the chance. But when it does happen, it hits hard. The worst is at family gatherings during Tet, when the adults spend three hours discussing land prices and I'm stuck on a wooden sofa cracking melon seeds and nodding politely. Long meetings at work have the same effect; once the slides go past number forty, my mind wanders off to what I'm having for lunch. As a kid I was bored constantly, especially in the summer holidays. My parents were at work, there was no wifi, and the afternoon cartoons didn't start until five, so my brother and I ended up inventing ridiculous games, like racing paper boats in the drain behind our house. Looking back, that's exactly why I think boredom is underrated. Some of my best ideas still turn up when I'm doing nothing at all, in the shower or waiting at a red light. If you fill every spare minute with short videos, your brain never gets a chance to come up with anything of its own.