I'm currently quite isolated due to my illness and I'm thinking about past experiences with social seclusion that inadvertently prepared me for this. When my mind is operational, I am never bored. This is partially because, during my entire childhood and adolescence, I spent my summers on Nantucket where I had absolutely no friends.
In the beginning it made sense I had no friends. (I was socially awkward to the point of paralysis.) But, by middle school, I had actually developed social skills yet somehow my sense of humor didn't translate to the Nantucket crowd or, rather, the Nantucket Yacht Club crowd. (I still couldn't pull off pastels. I felt ridiculous in girlish prep attire and, well, it was a requirement.) So, I learned how to occupy time with other things. I wrote horrible poetry, I wrote horrible stories, I put on one woman productions of my favorite musicals by myself which I performed.... to myself. I learned how to play pop songs by blowing into an aperture I made with my hands, I became okay at the devils sticks and developed a bevy or other entirely useless skills. I can actually make Nantucket lightship baskets... (To this day, if you gave me some cane, I could figure it out.) At one point, I took up stunt kite flying. I learned how to launch the kite by myself and, actually, I became somewhat adept. Occasionally, I would fly my kite in a field outside my family's rental house and people would stop to admire my skills. Sometimes, we would engage in a short conversation about the kite. Where did I purchase the kite? Where did I learn how to fly it? I told them about The Nantucket Kite Shop and the VHS stunt kite flying instructional video that came with the kite from The Nantucket Kite Shop; then they would go off on their way and leave me to the field.
That was usually my daily social interaction for the day.
I suppose I am actually happy about these summers I spent in social seclusion because it prepped me for my current isolation/disease. When my mind is operational, I am never bored. I do not fundamentally understand boredom. So thank you to all my former Nantucket peers who never liked me!
P.S. If you were friends with me in middle school, I believe I lied and said I had friends on Nantucket to create an illusion of a mysterious second life where I dated and engaged in illicit teenage activities. I think I also invented a pseudo boyfriend/love interest to deter anyone from thinking I was gay? Anyway, this was all a lie to incease my social cache. SORRY FRIENDS FROM MIDDLE SCHOOL.