Like most youngsters, I spent the majority of my teenage years wandering around my hometown with nothing to do. Bored. Now, like most adults, my life is so busy that I can hardly remember what it was like to be bored.
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| Serine Halverson |
After the school bell rang at three p.m. my biggest concern was, “What’s for dinner?” or, “I wonder what Nicole’s doing today?” or, “Where did I put that homework assignment?” On a typical day I would call my best friend Nicole.
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“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing, what about you?”
“Nothing.”
“You want to hang out?”
“Sure.”
We would walk through Eagle River for hours: on bike paths and trails and sidewalks. We would sit under the awning of the movie theater, on the swings at the elementary school playground, in the dugout at the ballpark, or on the boulders and logs in the woods behind my house.
Since then, because of our busy lives, we “hang out” less, and we are more refined. We go on fishing trips, walk the dog, or attend a concert.
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| Serine Halverson |
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Recently, a friend invited me to go geocaching in Eagle River. We started by the new hospital and wandered for hours, walking from one end of town to the other and back again, picking and choosing which geocache to visit next. We got distracted, wandered off the trail, balanced on guardrails, climbed over fences, squeezed under fences, and completely lost track of time.
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| Serine Halverson |
As I lost the sense of urgency that I usually carry around with me—work, family, bills, and responsibilities—I found something I lost a long time ago, something that stems out of small-town boredom. It is a general sense of curiosity, spontaneity and calm.
For many, summer in Alaska is one event or obligation after another. As the busy season subsides, locals are still trying to get the most out of every sunny day that peeks through the brisk autumn chill. On our next sunny day, I’ll think I’ll call Nicole. Hopefully, when I ask her what she’s doing, she’ll reply, “Nothing.”
Serine Halverson is associate editor of Alaska magazine.