I Want a Boring Life

I Want A Boring Life.

Perhaps it is clear now that I toy around with, too much maybe, the multiple meanings of words- I probably give many of them my own meaning. In this post I will attempt to make the word boring cool. In a sentence, I want a boring life. Now here is the unnecessarily long blog post that unpacks this obnoxiously vague statement.

Life should be lived like a sniper*. We should have one specific mission in mind, one objective. From that point, we should streamline our lives into things that serve that purpose. Yes, this might mean that you need to stop doing 9 resume building activities every evening and do nothing but think and read and write for night or two...a week. Figure out what the hell you are doing the long term. This does not refer to simply a career direction, I'm talking even bigger. The "why" that lurks behind everything. You are volunteering at the hospital so you can put it on your med school applications, why are you going to med school? Why do you want to become a doctor? Is if for the respect? The money? The desire to help? Will this melt away if you don't get respect and you are "helping" the privileged maintain comfort or beauty? You opinionated poli-sci majors out there: stripped of ideals, adding in the reality of friends and family and rent and the dark month of February and times when the poor you are trying to help are spitting back what you give them or using the free medicine to sell, what is glue? Will this answer hold in 30 years? Will this answer hold on cold rainy mornings when no one is around?


All this to say I don't want to live a drama filled buck shot fest [buck shot being the sporadic, short range gun opposite of a sniper]. I was watching Definitely, Maybe and saw and nice example of a wandering, buck shot life. The man goes to propose to whom he has finally decided is the woman for him, only to find she slept with his roommate because she didn't know how to get out of the relationship. Then he finds another girl who picks her career over their relationship. Then when he is miserable, jobless, reclusive, he tells a similarly lost girl he has always loved her. This pisses her off because she wants a man that has his shit together. This sloppy, wandering, destructive and drama filled life is obviously exaggerated for the sake of the movie. But, through talking to friends and yes, at times my own life, this buck shot life is what many of us do.


Alternatively, I want to read much, think much, talk little. I want to prioritize and strategize so that my life can be boring, void of stupid drama born from selfish, shortsighted mistakes. There won't be any baby Mommas, there will be less long, painful conversations explaining why I hurt someone I cared about because I was selfish and confused, I won't have to see the pain in the eyes of someone I care about as you tell them that I don't want them because it's not the right time in my life. I want to be firm in my purpose so I do not need to draw meaning from minor distractions that pop up in the form of a cute girl or easy and available but meaningless job. I want my life to be drama free and boring. I want to work hard, love much, and sleep well as I snipe my life's purpose. This way I will not toy with people and relationships out of lostness and I don't end up hating where I am in life.


This is not to say that right now, at age 22, take a weekend and lock yourself into what must be your purpose for the rest of your life. This is not to say that finding a direction is a once in a life time thing. We must always be growing and changing. The application of this idea is to merely to say stop, think, be quiet, and consider what kind of life you want your days to, in summation, create. Then make it happen.


*Analogy taken from Mark Driscoll.