Boredom

“There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering–a hell of boredom. ”
― Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

When I saw this quote I immediately thought that it was true. I think that boredom is really the worst thing, it can drive one crazy. This might seem like a bad example, but this summer I worked at a hotel for a month. I was an entertainer and this might sound fun and some people don’t even consider it to be true profession, but trust me it’s not as easy and fun as it sounds like. Of course there were also fun moments and entertaining shows, but mostly it’s actual hard work too. I had never worked as an entertainer before, or worked at all for that matter, so they gave me the easy jobs. What I usually did was to sit at the entertainment info desk for hours in the morning, go to lunch, come back and sit at the desk again for hours. Sometimes people would ask me for instructions or complain to me about something I honestly had no idea about. Some people came up to me and started speaking in all kinds of languages I don’t understand, but most of the time I just sat at the desk starring at the people enjoying their vacation.

My first day was probably the most exciting, because that day I was left alone at the info desk for the first time. It was exciting and frightening because I knew nothing about the hotel and I wouldn’t be very helpful to anyone asking for directions. But once I figured out everything I was not excited anymore. I just watched the pool and the people jumping in and having fun all day, while I was sitting in the heat and was bored to death. I was so bored the minutes on the clock didn’t seem to pass and I was getting really jealous of all the people who were enjoying the hotel.

Even though sitting at the info desk wasn’t physically painful (other than the awful heat) it was painful for my soul. So I really agree with Victor Hugo and think that a hell of boredom is far worse than a hell of suffering.