Boredom

Upon returning from Colorado I felt lost.  I was finally regaining some of my energy after having been lethargic for so long because of the mono and was not sleeping as much as I had been.  While this was a good sign for my physical health, my mental health was suffering.  I had way, way, way too much free time on my hands.  I had gone from a life that was schedule down to the minute, to a life that was in total chaos, to a life that was completely filled with free time.  I would love to tell you that my schedule was just off, but in reality I had no schedule.  I would get up late and stay up until all hours of the morning.  Most days I stayed in my pajamas and did not even leave my house.  I spent hours on the computer and watched more tv than I had in the prior 24 and a half years of my life combined.  Sure, this may sound nice to some of you.  And yeah, the first couple of days it was great, but when it keeps going and there is no end in sight, boredom sets in.

Although I was actively looking for a full time associate position, there is only so much time that takes.  I looked at the same websites every single day, twice a day – craigslist, monster, careerbuilder, daily journal, simplicity for multiple schools, bay area legal jobs to name a few.  I applied for several jobs each day.  But after a few hours I was done.  There were no more jobs to apply too.  My cover letter had been written, re-written, edited and re-edited countless times so I had one for every possible situation.  My resume was in pristine condition.  My transcript and references were ready to go.  I even re-vamped my writing sample a couple of times.  There was nothing more I could do on the job front.  It was time to wait for responses. 

First I turned to scrapbooking which kept me busy for a while.  But after scrapbooking my entire trip to Hawaii and various other events in my life, my creative juices were running dry and I had to put it away (at least for the time being).  

Movies became the next obsession.  I would watch DVDs that we had back to back to back.  I would watch movies on Starz.  I watched made for TV movies and Lifetime movies.  Some of my favorites included the entire Harry Potter Series, The Holiday, Life as We Know It, and Princess and the Frog.  That lasted less than a week.  

Next came reading.  I read at least a book a day for a week.  (Check out my reading list under the "Learn" tab at the top of the page.)  I also looked through my mom’s library of craft books (and I mean library … we are talking hundreds of books) and flipped through the pages of every magazine of interest I found laying around the house.  I took trips to the public library and would just sit there reading.  But that got old too.  After a while I just did not want to pick up another book. 

I was told by a friend in law school that I simply did not know how to relax, and he was right.  I have no idea what to did when I have tons of extra time on my hands.  I am a planner by nature, and when I have huge amounts of free time I have difficulties figuring out what to do with it because nothing has been planned.

Luckily, I had applied for a post-graduate research position with Chapman School of Law, and specifically with the professor I had worked for during my time as a student.  My term of employment started the third week in March, just in time to save me from boredom.  Since then I have been doing research a couple of hours a day.  The pay is decent, the experience keeps my skills sharp and looks good on my resume, and it allows me to continue to look for full-time employment.

Being a planner without a plan takes gumption!