# 1) Are you an interesting person? 2) Have you lived an interesting life?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 19, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719 "2012-07-19T14:44:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/1 "2012-07-19T14:44:29Z")
Just as the title says. Define “interesting” in whatever way makes sense to you. And please, explain your answers!
---
### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/2 "2012-07-19T15:03:14Z")
Yes, and yes. I think I am an interesting person _because_ I have lived an interesting life. For almost any topic you want to talk about, I have either experienced it, know someone that has experienced it, or at least have heard/read about it and have an opinion on it. So I’m not someone that will just sit there and have nothing to say, like a bump on a log. My interesting life hasn’t always been \*good \*interesting, but at least I’ve done things, gone places, and known people.
---
### Author:  [@kmshrader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kmshrader)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/3 "2012-07-19T15:15:17Z")
Very happily YES. I was born in a green school bus, and it’s only gotten more interesting in the years since. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/4 "2012-07-19T15:21:06Z")
Depends.
Does answering “Yes, **Skald the Rhymer** , I’ll go along with your weird hypothetical proposition” make me an openminded person with a ditto life? Or does it make me someone with such a shitty boring life that **Skald** s hypotheticals would actually be an improvement?
---
### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/5 "2012-07-19T15:23:57Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#):
>
> Y…have nothing to say, like a bump on a log.
As I am a nature geek, bumps on logs can interest me endlessly. Bugs, lichens, fungae…But does that make _me_ interesting ?
---
### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/6 "2012-07-19T15:29:23Z")
I’m a very boring person who’s had some fun and has some stories. But not that many.
Very boring in that I quite easily entertain myself. I am not, nor ever have been, the life of the party. I will respond to those that ARE, though, and can keep things going. But I get bored easily and will wander off on my own again quite soon. I am the occasional smart-ass in the conversation, but will rarely start said conversation. I am the boring rock underneath which neat bugs can sometimes be found. But I’m still a rock. That…likes to move around once in a while.
Sometimes interesting, in that I like people watching, and being around things that interest me though I likely have no talent for it myself. So I like to be around interesting people, until I need to go be boring again. My preferred habitat is on the outskirts of interesting, where I can peek in, enjoy the good times, and then go take a nap.
---
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/7 "2012-07-19T15:34:46Z")
A lot of aspects of my life probably seem interesting to others. Seemed pretty normal while I was living it.
---
### Author:  [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/8 "2012-07-19T15:44:04Z")
I feel like just a regular person but other people seem to think I have an interesting life. I simply realized many years ago that I was only given one life and that I should live it to the fullest and started making all my dreams come true.
---
### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/9 "2012-07-19T15:44:33Z")
I and my life are often interesting to others but not to me. And also often interesting to me and not others. Maybe that’s interesting in of itself, to some, and not others.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/10 "2012-07-19T15:49:15Z")
Yes. Others seem to think so.
My life is only mildly interesting, but my fiction makes up for it.
---
### Author:  [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/11 "2012-07-19T15:59:14Z")
I think I’ve lived quite the interesting life. Served in the Persian Gulf as an Army Medic, did research diving on coral reefs in the Caribbean and Bahamas for several years. Hiked the mountains of Arizona as a field biologist for a year. Adjunct faculty/lecturer at a university and instructor at community college. Worked at a video store. Manager of Waldenbooks. For a year, made more money in back room poker games than my full-time job.
All before age 30.
But, I do not consider myself a terribly interesting person.
> [@](#):
>
> I quite easily entertain myself. I am not, nor ever have been, the life of the party. I will respond to those that ARE, though, and can keep things going. But I get bored easily and will wander off on my own again quite soon. I am the occasional smart-ass in the conversation, but will rarely start said conversation. I am the boring rock underneath which neat bugs can sometimes be found. But I’m still a rock. That…likes to move around once in a while.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/12 "2012-07-19T16:03:43Z")
1. No.
2. Yes.
I’m boring as hell, but have interesting experiences. Plane crashes, dive accidents, exploding bowels (and not in the euphemistic “exploding” way either), near-drownings, working with serial killers and socializing with presidential brothers.
Just read some of my threads.
---
### Author:  [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/13 "2012-07-19T16:07:26Z")
> [@Taomist](#):
>
> I’m a very boring person who’s had some fun and has some stories. But not that many.
>
> Very boring in that I quite easily entertain myself. I am not, nor ever have been, the life of the party. I will respond to those that ARE, though, and can keep things going. But I get bored easily and will wander off on my own again quite soon. I am the occasional smart-ass in the conversation, but will rarely start said conversation. I am the boring rock underneath which neat bugs can sometimes be found. But I’m still a rock. That…likes to move around once in a while.
>
> Sometimes interesting, in that I like people watching, and being around things that interest me though I likely have no talent for it myself. So I like to be around interesting people, until I need to go be boring again. My preferred habitat is on the outskirts of interesting, where I can peek in, enjoy the good times, and then go take a nap.
This! Very much this.
---
### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/14 "2012-07-19T19:21:24Z")
I have definitely lived an interesting life. I’ve experienced being a Christian fundamentalist, a Baptist, a Buddhist, and an athiest. My background is mostly working class and almost everybody in my family is highly intelligent and extremely fucked up.
I legally emancipated at 17, worked full time to finish high school, graduated Salutatorian, went to an AMAZING school on scholarship, fell madly in love, discovered Spanish, taught ESL in Mexico and got very heavily into work with immigrants, moved to the East Coast, worked in Manhattan, attended Grad school in Philadelphia… I’ve seen the Acropolis in Athens and houses built out of bound sticks in rural Mexico. I grew up in a trailer park and have dined at five star restaurants in expensive evening wear. I’ve just lived a lot of different lives.
As far as whether I’m an interesting _person_, I’m not sure about that. I am truly, deep down a very laid back and simple person. As much drama as I’ve had in my life I hate it and will really only allow stable people into my inner circle. I’m not a particularly vivacious person - actually very introverted. People who do not know me well consider me quiet. I’m not even sure most people notice I exist. And honestly, I’m totally okay with that. I just want a simple, predictable, honest life with a few people I love.
---
### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/15 "2012-07-19T19:38:41Z")
I’ve had such an interesting life that I can fully comprehend why wishing such, on someone, is considered a curse!
By 16yrs, life had been so interesting, I began to pray in earnest that I wouldn’t live to be 100 like my Gran!
Along the line I sort of decided if life was going to be this interesting, I’d might as well be brazenly adventurous, what could happen?
The two trajectories intersected and life got so interesting & awesome I began to hope I would outlive my Gran!😃
As for interesting, I’m not really sure I know. I often hear, ‘I like how you think!’, or, ‘I’m asking you because you think differently.’ But, again, I’m not certain I really know what either of those things truly mean.
---
### Author:  [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/16 "2012-07-19T19:52:56Z")
I am…the 400 Millionth Most Interesting Man in the World.
That’s just how the research came out, I don’t know why I ranked as I did…
---
### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/17 "2012-07-19T20:03:43Z")
Yes.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/18 "2012-07-19T20:04:41Z")
No, and no. I’ve had the kind of life that has been boring as heck from the outisde (i.e. to talk about), which is not at all the same thing as the kind of life which is boring actually to live through.
---
### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/19 "2012-07-19T20:12:46Z")
I am probably like most people, a bunch of mildly interesting things that no one really wants to hear about along with a couple of things that make people go “WTF!!!” 😕
In fact I just posted one story in another thread but here’s one I had to swear to my babies’ mama never to tell the kids.
I’m in the 3rd grade walking home from 7-11 with my cherry/cola slurpee. It was kickass too. The guy made them \ with 6 layers. Walking home alone a guy pulls up and asks if I want a ride home. Well who wants to walk so I say sure. I get in the car and
He takes me to my house and drops me off.
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719/20 "2012-07-19T20:17:49Z")
Overall, no. I’ve done a handful of interesting things – I’m a professionally published sci-fi paperback author with nine books now very much out of print – but that’s sort of one pinnacle in an otherwise deserted plain of mediocrity.
Oh, well, leaving out the box of dynamite.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1-are-you-an-interesting-person-2-have-you-lived-an-interesting-life/628719.md?page=2)