Yesterday, I was bored for the first time in five months.

As a child, being bored was common to me; my summer days and afterschool activities consisted of no responsibilities. Whenever I found myself bored, I would usually either walk to my neighbors’ house or openly letting my imagination run wild with my sister, something which would never fail to entertain us.

However, as I grew up, responsibilities came crashing down on me; my somber, stale school days never seemed to come to an end. In the hours following the end of school, my time became filled with more school through homework and various sports practices, but even this all came to an end this week.

I haven’t gone to school for seven days, participated in a sports activity for five days, or seen a human being beside a family member in five days due to the many snow days we’ve had. This week, for the first time in forever, I became bored. My beloved apps and Netflix shows I watch to avoid homework became dull and lifeless, leaving me with nothing else to do.

As I’ve gotten older, the amount of free time I have to myself has decreased, partly because of various sports and partly because my weekends—my days off—have consisted of hanging out with friends and family and attending sports events.

These past seven days I have experienced what it’s like to be bored again, which I had desperately missed. These past seven days I bonded with my family, improved my mental health, and got my life back in order. These past seven days I found myself being more productive than I have been in a long time.

After the first few days off, I began to run out of shows to watch, clothes to fold, and things to organize; I began to walk around like a dog in an empty house, not knowing what to do with myself.

When I finally reached a complete state of boredom after a few days, I realized that I had longed for this feeling, this feeling of no stress and perfect relaxation.

It seems to me that Netflix was more exciting when I was procrastinating, and my friends were more important when I had homework to do. While I was basically on house arrest for five days in a row due to the horrendous road conditions, I realized that the older you get, the rarer boredom becomes.

As I sat in my bed, scrolling through my phone or folding my clothes, I was able to allow myself to become fully content because for the first time in forever, there were no deadlines eating away at me, or chores calling my name.

I was simply happy.

I was simply bored.