Oh, that magic feeling -- nowhere to go

You get to choose your media. (Image by Albrecht Fietz)

A generation of kids, used to marching from one highly structured activity to another, is learning the magic of being bored.

With virtually every after school activity canceled, they have had so much free time that they have gotten their fill of Netflix and video games. They’re looking for something else.

Ray is building computers, piece by piece. Chloe is baking obsessively. Emma is gardening. Kate is learning audio recording techniques. Anna is coding. Rose is drawing for hours on end. Sam is building weird robots out of recycled components, and Daniel built a table out of wood and epoxy.

For now, like any good hobby, these pursuits are just for personal enjoyment. They’re doing these things for fun. However, these adolescents might be engaging in pastimes that will influence their future careers. They’re discovering interests that they may not have been able to develop if the world hadn’t stopped and made room.

Hopefully, someday soon, kids can see their friends again, run around on soccer fields, and play violin in the school orchestra. They can get back into birthday parties, class trips, and extracurricular clubs.

But I hope they won’t lose the ability to choose how to spend at least some of their time. And if they do have a stretch of unstructured time, I hope they will take a moment to think about their options instead of defaulting to passive “content consumption” mode. I hope they will continue to make things and learn things on their own terms.

The current teens and tweens of striving communities in major cities and suburbs have rarely been able to ask themselves, “What do I feel like doing right now?” I’m devastated that the coronavirus ruined all of our plans for the spring. But I’m glad that these kids have a little space to explore, experiment, and dream.