Boredomophobia

Well, I am finally done with the horrendous task of grading for this semester. Here is small query: what universal thing is it about being somewhere around the age of 19 or 20 that makes an otherwise nicely raised American child obsess and get the absolute creepie crawlies when the thought of boredom comes up? And why does the terror of boredom seem to come up every, oh, say, .oooo2 nanoseconds at that age? Or, is it being American that produces the fear of boredom? Or, does everyone in the world except me fear boredom? Am I boring you?

I will tell you why I ask. I assigned as essay question, rather a choice of two essay questions re: Tananarive Due's My Soul to Keep. The first was

Explain how you might feel, finding yourself in the fifth century of
your immortal existence. Would you be discontented, like David
Wolde? What sort of life would you want to have or not have, if you were immortal? Would you be tempted to make another person or
persons immortal? Why or why not?

And the second was

Is Dawit a human being? Evaluate him using a specific set of criteria
and justify your criteria.

Can I tell you how whiny and misery sister the whole thing was? It doesn't matter which question anyone answered. David is sad. David is cursed. David is filled with loss. David has done everything, been everywhere. David can't die, though he has tried. David has loved and lost. David is bad. David is a deceiver. David needs love. David looks good outside, but is rotten inside. David is this. David is that. Bla bla bla David. On the first question, the BIG PROBLEM IS THAT DAVID IS A MISERABLE LYING MURDERING BASTARD WHOSE LIFE JUST GOES ON AND ON IN ONE LONG BORING STRETCH OF BORING INANITY and I wouldn't like that because it would be sad and boring for me after all those years none of my family or friends or lovers would be around and I would be lonely and bored with nothing to do and no one to do it with and I would be so bored and not have any fun any more even though it would have been fun at first and me so good looking and all. And I wouldn't make anyone else immortal because it's not fair because then they would be bored and lonely and not having any fun and bored just like me.

So, am I missing something here? In the "Points of Pride" webpage of our fine university, the braggarts (Deadly Sin # 7: Superbia) claim:

University XYZ students have a strong sense of civic
responsibility and volunteered more than 30,000 hours of their time to service
organizations during 2005-06.

Not MY students, or at least not in their immortal lives. They'd be too bored.

Would they give immortality to another? Only if the other was "fully informed and agreed to it." David is a monster since he did not ask permission. Asking permission makes everything okay. If I informed another that I wished to perform heinous acts upon their person and asked permission whether it was okay and they said it was, it would be okay, according to all. The nature of the heinous acts is irrelevant. The nature of the power differential between the informer/asker and the informed/asked is irrelevant. But wait, that never came up! It would be too boring to even think about it! Thinking, perhaps is the most boring thing of all!

As for David/Dawit being human, well, he "goes to the bathroom" some said. He "had a body" according to others. He "loves" and "is loved" (which comes close to something like an idea.)

At this point in the course, we have completely forgotten the criteria for humanity given by 8-10 major philosophers. We invent them now. We get them from Mademoiselle and Vogue and Esquire and the Wall Street Journal. "To be human is to push the envelope." "To be human is to wear nice clothes." "To be human is to take a pellet when the bell goes off."

I think I shall eat a peach.