Look up your favorite music artists and find out who they call an influence. You might be surprised by the sounds your favorites grew up hearing. Alternatively, look through your music to find something you haven’t listened to in forever. Take a trip down sonic memory lane.
Read up. If you’re a good reader and are bored with YA, read books written for adults. If you don’t understand everything, don’t worry. There is value in reading difficult literature, and it can often be more interesting to read something you don’t understand than something you find easy. Visit the library and browse through your favorite sections. Choose books with enthralling picture and titles, and read the blurb to find out more. Read some old YA authors. Before YA was popular, authors like Diana Wynne Jones, Tove Jansson, Roald Dahl, and Noel Streatfeild wrote novels for children that are appropriate for teen and adult readers.
Do a mindfulness meditation in which you focus on your senses. Pay attention to your breathing, how each part of your body feels, and what you can hear, see, smell, and taste. [3] X Research source
Find an old photo album and learn what your parents thought was fashionable when they were your age. Pose for your baby pictures again-try to get the lighting, the outfit, the pose and the facial expression just right.
If you need another guideline, pick your film according to a rule. For instance, use the Bechdel test. You can only watch a film if it has (1) at least two named female characters who (2) have at least one conversation together (3) about anything other than men. [5] X Research source
For instance, if you are always alone after school, now could be the time to join an after-school organization. [7] X Expert Source Nicolette Tura, MAAuthentic Living Expert Expert Interview. 28 January 2020. If you are bored because you don’t have many friends, making friends could be your new goal. If you are bored because you have lost interest in the things you like, or you can’t focus on anything, you might be depressed. If you are anxious and bored, you might have ADHD. [8] X Research source Talk to an adult or a doctor about your boredom.
Take a map and draw a wiggly path on it without looking. Challenge yourself to walk along the path you drew as closely as you can. Make sure it loops you back home!
For instance, you could visit an vintage store and explore dated fashion and obsolete technology. Imagine what it was like to wear a corset, wear a hat every day, or “dial” a phone.
Visit a farmer’s market or a grocery store together and pick out 3-6 things together. You might get fresh bread, apples, cheese, chocolate, carrots, and hummus, for example. Take your picnic somewhere green and quiet, or somewhere with a good view. Go on a hike if you can. Eat the picnic at the top of the mountain or end of the trail. Make sure to pack water!
Possible content for a zine include: reviews of shows, books, movies, and albums, outside submissions of poetry, photographs, and drawings, lists, trivia, humor, political commentary, and fashion tips. Stay true to the punk spirit of the “zine” and make them yourself. All you need is a photocopier and a stapler. Pass out your zine to members of your community. Leave them in lobbies, common rooms, and sneak them into magazine racks at stores. Zines are fun because they are super representative of the place they are made. Ask for contributions from the people you see weekly: the proctors at your school, your favorite barista, the kids you babysit, your grandmother.
Cook without a recipe. Use inexpensive ingredients and experiment. Try to recreate something you have eaten in a restaurant, or invent a twist on a dish you enjoy. Clean up as you go. Cooking is more fun when there aren’t a bunch of dishes at the end.
Make something you can use, like a notebook or a scarf. Make art for someone. Make a card, write a beautiful letter, or paint a picture for someone you love. If you know someone who is going through a hard time, make something for them. Make a movie. Make a long film of something interesting. You can appear in it, or it can focus on other people, animals, things you observe. Try to film a portrait of a place: all the most strikingly beautiful, plain, ugly, active, and quiet places in your neighborhood, for instance. Write fanfiction. Take the characters from a book or show you enjoy, and write them some adventures. Take a neglected character and give her a starring role.
A garden is a commitment, so start small if you’re not ready to be in charge of an army of zucchini. Grow one plant in a pot, and if that goes well, you can start tilling earth.
Ask someone in your life if they need help. Just do it right now. Ask a parent, a grandparent, or a neighbor.
Go into business for yourself. Sell things you craft online, sell cookies at school, or call neighbors and family friends and offer to babysit, sit for cats, look after plants, walk dogs, mow lawns, or wash cars.
