Dear Bored,

I've got good news and bad news for you. The good news is: you can change this! The bad news is: you can change this!

Huh?

I'm going to introduce you to a whole new topic. Stay with me, if you can, I do think this one could be absolutely fascinating for you. It's called "locus of control." This is a psychological term that refers to how much you believe that you control events that affect you.

This theory refers to the extent that you think you can control things that happen to you. Your “locus” (location) of control over this can be external (where you feel like your environment, or some other power or even people have control over what happens to you), or internal (where you feel like you control your own life).

Example: Research shows that people who are obese tend to look at the clock and see if it's time to eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They are seeking an external cue to tell them when to eat. Their locus of control for eating is external. On the other hand, thinner people tend to eat when they feel hungry, relying instead on their internal locus of control.

Generally, people with a high internal locus of control are happier, more successful, and to your point, less bored in life and school!

Do you feel like you are in control of your life and behavior? Or do you think more that things HAPPEN to you – like getting stuck in dreadfully droning dry classes, with god-awful professors, or inane paper assignments? Are you sometimes late to class because an alarm clock failed to go off, or a roommate did or did not do such and such? Does any of that sound familiar? If so, you may not be very much in charge of your own life, and that truly is boring! The thing is, YOU are in charge of making your classes interesting, not your teachers.

In fact, it may not be the topic or class that is boring, it’s probably you.

You may even be fading to the background in your own class – other students may not even notice you. If you are not trying to relate class material to your own life, or using your imagination and empathy to consider other points of view, then you may be sort of passively just sitting there like a half empty container of old yogurt, sitting in the fridge for months, getting more and more congealed. Unresponsive, uninterested, uninteresting. Cold, silent, unconsidering, and unconsidered. Thick. Boring. (And kind of gross – what a waste).

So how do you apply this to your problem? Try to mentally put yourself in the driver’s seat of your own life. Instead of a boring class happening TO you, or a boring topic being given TO you, instead, reverse this thinking to see yourself as a person who chose to go to college for some reason, and whose actions and decisions landed them in each particular class you are taking. This is your education, your time, your money or your parents money, and -- actually, your life. You can choose to be passive, just sit there and wait to be served entertainment like a plump stoner on the couch waiting for the next MTV show to pop on and the doorbell to ring for Papa John to bring you a pizza, OR, you can choose to be an active participant in your own college experience, your own class, your own hour, your own minute. It could be your last – do you really want to be a crashing bore?

Have you ever noticed that the most interesting people are also the most interested?

In practical terms, this means, wake up, sit up, lean forward, plug in, and find a way to relate whatever is going on in a class to your own life – then engage in it, in control. You drive the bus. Where will you go?

-Aunt Amy