“I miss being bored: boredom was happiness”

Barcelona"The summers I miss the most are those when there were no external stimuli other than those you sought out," says the writer Pep Prieto, winner of the Prudenci Bertrana Prize for Rosita, which will be published on September 17. Writing it made her think a lot about those summers that "were colonially boring," when everything was easy and she had to decide what to do if she wanted to have a modicum of activity. Rosita was her grandmother, and the novel, which is autobiographical, deals extensively with those years between 1983 and 1987, from her ages 7 to 11.

Pep admits that he didn't value enough these summers he spent in his city, Girona, with his grandparents. His holidays consisted of being at his grandparents' house and, therefore, at most, he went for walks with his grandmother, they went hiking in San Daniel, or he consumed culture: reading, writing and buying the TP (Teleprogram) to find out when the episode of the series I was watching would air or the release date of a movie: "I miss being bored and I realize that boredom was happiness. I miss the long, boring summers when I had nothing to do."

A routine that was repeated until he had some purchasing power. From then on, he began to generate summer clichés: going out to party in Platja d'Aro or going on vacation. "Up until then, I had the prerogative to be bored, but there comes a time when you encounter the tyrannies of adult life, you start working, and the feeling of doing nothing is altered," he says. He understands that he was a kind of sugar being; no one questioned that his job was to be out there making a name for himself.

Unlike adulthood, which, among other things, involves caring for children, during preadolescence, he didn't have to agree to anything with anyone and felt like time was running out. He's aware that he has fewer vacations now, but complains about the excess of external stimuli. Sometimes he feels like his schedule is on a roll, and his summers depend more on third parties, so he just asks for peace of mind, even though professionally he doesn't spend much time. This is when he takes advantage of the opportunity to write more; he continues to collaborate with various media outlets, writing and doing radio segments, and spending time with his son and his partner, Marta, who has two daughters. When everything fits together, they take advantage of the opportunity to engage in local cultural tourism, go to fairs to look for old records and books, have a drink at the bar, or go to the coast. "Marta sings in the band The Funk Power Station, and during this time they play a lot of gigs, which have become part of our schedule. I have a good time; I already associate it with summer," he acknowledges.