Chapter Twenty: Bad Habits

5/10/17

     We all have things about ourselves we wish we could change. Among those things are these nasty things we have called bad habits. No matter what the habit is, the common denominator is that they are all bad, whether they are bad for our health, the environment, or society itself. The very definition of a bad habit is "a negative behavioral pattern." Most of the time, the thing that makes it a "bad habit" is that other people hate when you do it. No matter where you go, your habits will bother someone, and there's no doubt that they will let you know it. I know that bad habits are hard to kick, and I've had my fair share of them.  I don't care who you are, everyone has some kind of habit, whether they know it or not. Tonight I asked what some other people's bad habits are.

     Nail biting. This is probably the most common one, and it was the first response I received. It's also my worst bad habit. I'll be doing something and biting my nails the entire time and not even realize it. It happens when I'm reading, watching a movie or TV, driving, waiting for my food at a restaurant, waiting for anything at all, even when I'm going to sleep I'm biting my nails. I've always had a problem with this, because I have very sensitive nails. Once I start biting them, I chew them down basically to the quick. It's a disgusting, nervous habit. My solution was to always get fake nails because I never chew those, but that got to be expensive, and I would end up having to rip them off and it would just make my nails even worse. Many people I know have this habit, and I know I have been yelled at for it for my whole life. I just can't stop it!

     The second habit I heard the most was swearing. I personally don't see swearing as a bad habit. I love to swear, holy shit! But the thing about it is you need to know that there's a time and place for swearing. Obviously when other people's kids are around and they don't want them to hear it, or in a church, you shouldn't swear. Those ones should go without saying. But I think everyone has a right to swear if they want to. They're just WORDS, people. They really don't mean anything besides what society made them up to mean. Who knows if that's what they really even mean? I don't know, that's just my opinion I guess. But anyways, I think swearing is another nervous habit. I always swear when I get scared or pissed off. Like if someone comes up behinds me and scares the shit out of me. Or if someone is a huge dick to me. Then I really want to swear. Swearing at stupid people while driving came up in the discussion, and I have to say I think almost everyone does that. I think it's actually pretty funny. Swears just make everything funnier, in my opinion. Again, maybe that's just me. Maybe just be careful around them kids, eh?

      Here we come to smoking and drinking. Smoking is definitely a bad habit. And I know I can't say much because I've had this habit for a while. But it's a work in progress. We've all seen the "big tobacco" commercials that are literally EVERYWHERE. Don't do it, kids. As for the drinking, everyone knows how much I love to drink, so I can't say much for that one, either. But hey, it's not bad in moderation. If you're getting blackout drunk every time you drink or you're heavily day drinking more than once or twice a week, I think you may have a problem, and you should seek some help. Other than that, drink up, Johnny!

      This is the other nervous habit category. Grinding your teeth, tapping your teeth to the beat of the music (interesting), chewing your lip, picking your nose, and obviously nail biting goes into this category for sure. Fidgeting, bouncing your legs, cracking your knuckles, biting your pencil or pen, rocking back and forth. These are all things that we do subconsciously and people notice them even when we don't. I'm guilty of a lot of these. I'll be bouncing my legs and hitting someone while I'm doing it and won't notice. I also fidget a lot and just can't sit still. These things used to happen to me in school a lot, because I HATED school.

      Then come the worst habits of all: the ones that directly affect other people. Not thinking before you speak, which MOST people I know are guilty of, including me. That can hurt people's feelings, and it can even ruin relationships if you're not careful. And it can also get you into a whole lot of trouble. Rolling your eyes, which can piss off your significant others, teachers, friends, and especially your parents. I used to have a bad problem with rolling my eyes. It's like saying you are totally over whatever that person is trying to say to you. I think it's funny, to be honest, but people often mistake it for giving them an attitude or being an asshole. Not picking up after yourself, because that can really create a big mess. Literally. Talking too much, which can also be a nervous habit, because you just start blabbering and people get annoyed with that sometimes. Interrupting people when they're speaking, because that shows that you aren't interested in what they have to say. And here's one that I think every person I know is guilty of at one time or another: Procrastination. I am so bad with this you guys, I literally always wait till the last minute for everything. Not just homework, but conversations, deadlines for anything, applying for jobs, calling any company that requires me to talk to someone that's not a machine, cleaning my room, putting away laundry. That sort of thing. And pressing snooze on your alarm thirty bajillion times before you actually get the balls to get up. I do this every single day of my life.

       My boyfriend says his bad habit is being too nice to people. If that's his worst habit I think I'm safe. I found a good one, you guys. The last one is speeding. At one point, everyone speeds. If you're running late, but you still gotta do your morning Dunks run, you speed. You didn't leave enough time for yourself to do your hair, so you speed. You really need to get to that place you're going three minutes earlier than you would if you didn't speed. But not only is it dangerous, IT'S ILLEGAL GUYS. SO STOP. AND YOU'RE GOING TO GET ARRESTED. I think that's enough. Goodnight everyone.

xx