Escape from boredom can be more easily found in other cultures

By JOANNA EMILY BELTRAN and MATHIAS BIANCHI

Boredom is an unpleasant emotional state that happens when you want to be included in a satisfactory activity, but you cannot do it. It can be more dangerous in adolescence because it pushes adolescents to engage in risky or self-destructive activities.

My experience as a Latin American student in the United States is that spring holidays in the United States are more boring, and let’s just say that we have to make an effort to have a good vacation.

My vacations here in the United States are quite boring because there is less freedom for young people and fewer activities. Here, most young people just go out to eat and watch movies. You can only practice sports at school, and opportunities are hardly provided otherwise. You can also have fun here, but you have to work hard to achieve it. Since in the United States there are not so many activities that you can do, you may fall into depression because you will be alone at the beginning and you will be at home whenever you can not go out without an adult and have fun and lots of money.

My spring break in Mexico included riding motorbikes, going to rivers, fishing and then staying with family in some palapa on top of a mountain. You can go to parties often, leave without depending on an adult because you do not need to be big to be able to do things for alone. When you ride on motorcycles, you make your own lunch or you have everything prepared. Everyone stops and cooks and lives with family and friends. There in Mexico, it is very easy to not burden yourself since everything you want to do is possible with a lot of freedom as long as it is not bad. That is why it is very easy to spend a good and fun vacation with little effort since life in the United States and Mexico is very different.

Mexico is more free in every sense of the word, and in the United States, there is more security and more protection for people which is fine but also makes life boring.