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During the course of the past couple of weeks, I have increasingly noticed how many people complain about being bored all the time.

On an unrelated note, I have also noticed how unbelievably annoying it is to listen to people complain about being bored all the time.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I too have experienced the malaise that fills my peers and have been similarly convinced that there is no remedy for my paralyzing boredom.

What I have learned from these experiences with boredom is simple: It’s all in your head.
Boredom has nothing to do with what’s going on around you and everything to do with how willing or unwilling you are to get creative.

While I understand that Brandeis isn’t exactly a wonderland of exciting things to do, I also know that part of our tuition goes toward making sure that students have the resources that they need to have fun!

These resources come in many forms. First are the dozens of productions and performances that take place on campus. Included in this category are coffeehouses, plays, musicals, movie screenings, a cappella and dance shows that happen on campus every day. The next time you convince yourself that there is nothing to do at Brandeis, take a look at your event initiations on Facebook and try to make that claim again with a straight face.

While it’s true that going to see a semester show might not be your idea of an awesome Friday night, don’t underestimate how much fun it can be to go and watch your friend or floormate perform. Also, don’t underestimate how much fun it can be to go and watch people make total fools out of themselves in public, not that this would ever happen in a performance on Brandeis’ campus.

If you’re not interested in the arts, then we can turn our attention to the hundreds of other interest-based groups that Brandeis always boasts about on admissions tours. There are 260 of them and as it turns out, those clubs aren’t just for the purpose of statistics. There really are tons of ways to get Brandeis to pay for you to do the things that you actually enjoy. We have opportunities to mountain climb, ski, cook, ice skate, develop photographs, skydive and more, all on the university’s dime—or at least highly subsidized by it.

If none of these things entice you, then Brandeis makes it almost ridiculously easy to get free money to spend on whatever you want to do. If you doubt this, then consider that a few of my friends recently founded the Brandeis Tie Dye Club and were awarded an almost absurd amount of money to hang out and make tie-dye shirts.

If for some reason, you find the Brandeis campus abhorrent, then consider the fact that Brandeis provides us with free transportation into Waltham and Boston—and the fact that we have decent access to public transportation. Discovering the Boston area is awesome. In addition to the popular tourist spots like Newbury Street and Harvard Square, there are tons of places to shop, eat, walk around and generally explore.

There is a big difference between having nothing to do and being too lazy to take advantage of the resources available. Not taking advantage of the resources that Brandeis provides is a waste of tuition and also a personal problem.

More importantly being bored is a huge waste of college. Time that you spend being bored is also time that you could be spending hanging out with your friends, sleeping or, if you have truly exhausted all other options, working on those four essays that you’ve been complaining about but putting in no effort toward.

So, the next time you’re sitting around complaining about how bored you are, stop complaining and do something about it.