The importance of being idle

Something within me changed recently. I became a productive, contributing member of society and I started doing my own laundry.

It doesn’t stop here. Once you wind up on the path of being a citizen in every sense of the world, stained and wrinkled attire just does not feel right. Yes, I have a job, and yes, I earn money. Yes, I can splurge with reckless abandon and I owe it all to being bored of being bored.

If slackers had a monthly supplement, I swear to you I would have graced its covers a few times over. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling was a hobby and daydreaming was a sport.

Lord knows that if it weren’t for my utter hate of being nagged constantly by my father, I would have continued on this path of being perpetually useless. But out of nowhere I received a call from detailing a job opportunity. I don’t even remember applying anywhere, but I suspect my father, in a fit of desperation, got hold of my dusty CV, deleted the part that proudly mentioned my only crowning achievement of getting 890 in Fruit Ninja and spammed the document to every organisation he could think of. A few weeks later and I’m standing in front of a mirror, wrestling with a tie and wondering how I would ever make the transition from ex-college student to new employee.

Fact of the matter is that we become so scared of admitting that we aren’t teenagers anymore that anything that seems remotely responsible is shunned and the trickle of friends that land jobs are ostracised as being ‘sellouts’. I know from personal experience that I held on to that hope against hope that if I stayed in my room for long enough maybe people would forget I was there and I could be left alone to do all the nothing i wanted to do. But I changed and it didn’t happen because of anything other than that the first moment when you read your offer letter. It takes someone telling you that you can contribute to make you realise that you should contribute.

I've landed a job now, my first one and when it’s late and no one’s looking I still guffaw at old South Park episodes just to remind myself that I’ve still got it.

Read more from Fyez here and follow him on Twitter @fyezeatscake