I used to like simple things. Give me a pair of magnets, and I would be occupied for the rest of the day. But as I got older, magnets didn’t interest me anymore. They were just two small lumps of something that would stick to each other one way, and push each other another way.

Then I found a box of crayons and a blank paper. That kept me busy for days on end. But eventually, that too grew old. There were only so many colors in the box, only so many ways I could draw the small amount of things I knew about. Besides, almost everything I drew looked wrong somehow. I lacked a smooth finesse that the crayons simply couldn’t provide.

That’s when I discovered pencils and pens. Those entertained me for weeks, but could never really last. The pencils were worn down to stubs, and the pens were running out of ink. I had drawn on both sides of every sheet of paper I could get my hands on. Still, nothing I ever drew looked right. There was always a line somewhere that it shouldn’t have been, or a shadow where the light should have been bright.

Soon after that, I got my hands on a computer. I would sit at the desk for hours, playing games and watching videos. It was months before I started to lack enthusiasm for sitting in the hard chair at the cold desk to stare at a monolithic glowing screen. I got bored quickly after that.

Later, I received an iPod touch. This was amazing, and held my interest for years. There were so many things I could do with it. I could talk to my friends, take pictures and videos, and surf the internet, all while sitting in my pajamas underneath a pile of blankets on my bed. Too soon, it all started to run together. Everything was bland and meaningless.

You would think that I would be lost by now, melted into a pool of boredom. But no! There were exactly two things I had yet to discover. The first was the unimaginable joy of reading, and even re-reading, good books, of which there was an endless supply. The second was that I liked sound better than silence. My iPod, which used to be full of games and social media, was now storing hundreds of songs.

To this day, books and music take all of my free time. They have yet to disappoint, and I don’t think I’ll be running out of things to read any time soon. And even if I do, I’ll just read something again.