Boring Life Is a Happy Life
Many of us choose to live an active lifestyle, including traveling, working remotely, and discovering all colors of life. People aren’t attached to one place anymore, which gives much-needed flexibility and freedom.
Since childhood, I kept hearing that a person thrives on living in one place where he or she was born and grew up in. Patriotism and romanticism of one country to call home and that place to be your home country was difficult to argue, yet to challenge it in any way.
But soon I realized that the mere fact that I was born in this country wasn’t enough to keep me from searching for the one that felt more real and more like me.
I’ve never felt attached to my country or in need to build my life there. It was difficult to live with such feelings as most of my family and friends thought it was ignorant, and of course, impossible to create a dream life anywhere else besides my country.
After years of persuasion, I started to believe it too. Perhaps it wasn’t meant for me to have a dream life, and that urging feeling inside was just young idealism.
Perhaps it was, but differently than most of my family, I didn’t lose it, the opposite — it started to grow and flourish, and inspire me to do the same. So I left, and couldn’t stop. Whenever I would come back home, I would be searching for a new destination to get out, and maybe this time to find that perfect nest where the sun shines even though it’s raining.
For a long time, I’ve been changing countries to live, which would require me to relocate, change my social life, and cut off friendships and relationships. So, by having the luxury to travel the world and discover new cultures, I had to deal with not having a stable career, a lack of meaningful relationships, and no place to call home.
But despite that crippling desire to settle down, I couldn’t let myself settle down for anything than the best. And as we all know there’s no such thing as the best.
Every new destination had to be the best one and better than the one before. I aimed to achieve more, to see more, and find even more exotic countries. It’s an incredible experience to achieve such things, but you can’t always find something better, and to avoid disappointment. More on that, you have to be sure that this wandering is for you and your desires, not because someone is doing it better.
However, when you’re afraid to miss out on things, then nothing gives you joy, there’s no spark, and the plain rivalry is what drives your life. Until the moment you catch yourself crying in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and you don’t know why, because you just don’t know who you are anymore and why you’re doing what you’re doing.
I thought I was searching for happiness, while the only thing I had to search for was myself. And that self wasn’t on the beach in Thailand or in a historic street in Paris, it was inside all along.
I was running and fueling the race with the goal to finally find peace and joy. But I didn’t have money, couldn’t pursue a career I wanted and lacked a social life. But again, I couldn’t settle without that one place where everything is good.
I decided to look for that place in Tenerife, Spain. Although at first, I thought it will be a temporary winter destination before heading somewhere else. Now, after four months, I don’t want it to be temporary, I want to make it my home. And it’s so easy when it feels like home, and everything here leads to falling even more deeply in love with the island.
But it’s relatively a boring life. Then why is it so satisfying?
I wake up each day to an idyllic mountain view, drink my morning coffee and start working with the same clients I worked yesterday. Sometimes it sucks, nothing is perfect, but it gives me the ability to add money to a savings account each month, to buy food I crave for, and travel around.
I started developing close relationships with people, culture, and places. I have a circle of friends I can go out and have a meaningful conversation with. I have a partner who doesn’t show any red flags and wants the same things as I do. It helps me understand that the lack of drama is not boring, it’s calming, while at the same time, it’s challenging because you’re learning to nurture every little second of a relationship and your bond.
I love the culture, it doesn’t bother me and doesn’t go against my beliefs. Are people here more relaxed? Yes. Do they sometimes deliver things a week late? Yes. But does it matter that much? No. I love the Tenerifian lifestyle. It’s in tune with nature and neverending spring. I’m learning a lot from it, I’m learning a new language as a tribute to the country I want to call my own.
I go to work at the same library while passing the same streets. But it doesn’t get boring because every hour streets, buildings, and people look different.
In the morning, there’s no rush, shops are slowly opening, vendors chat with customers, everyone is walking their dogs, and an old lady is trying to catch some sun rays on a bench.
When evening comes, enthusiasms and young eagerness replace the lazy rhythm. And by young, I don’t mean age. Everyone’s young here at night. People dine, drink wine until laughter floods the streets, and music starts to get louder. Then everyone goes dancing.
And no one cares if it’s the third time you stepped on your partner’s foot, not even your partner. And when you go home to sleep, streets empty, and you look at the sky — all full of stars. Then while there are still people singing in a distance, and some late birds chirping, you start drifting to sleep.
It is a pretty boring and repetitive life, but hey — it’s full of joy and happiness, which also keeps repeating. And no, it’s not the best place in the world. And yes, I’m still dealing with daily problems, anxieties, fear of missing out. But the difference is that I found a home, and that home was here all along. But perhaps a beautiful island was what helped me to realize it.
