In the checklist of every person seeking a mate, there should be an line item asking “will I be bored with this person?” Because under compatibility, this should be number two.
This is an important element that I discovered I had found, after nearly 3 years with my partner, on a camping trip.
The other thing to note is silence does not equal boredom. Well, not all silence. If it’s awkward and you’re scrambling for topics, you my friend, are boring. The silence where you can sit casually next to them, each doing something else quietly, is a comfortable silence you’ll find in all great relationships. Being able to be with them, but still do your own thing is quite important. But this is not what this article is about. This article is about not being bored with your partner with nothing else, but them to entertain you.
We went on a beautiful camping trip in the Catskills filled with lots of outdoorsy activities with lots of old friends of mine. On an afternoon detour we decided to hit up the local swimming hole to cool off after a few days of not showering. While hiking up and down a mountainous highway looking for “the spot,” my first-time-camping-in-the-woods-boyfriend broke his sandal and had to sit this hike out. Being the caring girlfriend I am, I decided to stay with him, along the side of the road, by the car, until the others found “the spot” and hiked back.
It was there, amidst the non-existent cell reception and society’s stuff where I had discovered that I found someone where boredom does not exist. We talked for hours about ideas we had, shared stories about our past, and made plans for the future. We learned so many new things about each other — things that might not have been discovered, had we not been in this situation. We weren’t scrambling for things to talk about or counting down the minutes until the others arrived, we were just having a conversation, like we just met. It was an afternoon that could have been ugly, but was actually something quite perfect.
Being striped from all the distractions of society, you see your partner for who they really are, and how they react to life’s obstacles. And it can reveal just how interesting that person really is.