Taking time to enjoy a cup of coffee on a checked picnic blanket in fiiine weather? Priceless. Though excruciating at first, waking up for my 9am is getting easier and easier. The trick is to get into routine. Earlier today, I started thinking about it. Routine can be comforting and perhaps even soothing. It's nice to know exactly what to expect. My first challenge at college was to establish a routine. Needless to say, I'm still having difficulties with this. When I first arrived at school, I was amazed by how much freedom I suddenly had. I could probably go out every night if I wanted to. If I just felt like ordering food or going for a run, I could. But then you realize it's not like that at all. You need a routine, and the routine becomes suffocating.
It's funny. One time when I was still in grade school, my sister and I decided to go to the neighborhood park. We've probably taken this walk a thousand times before. As we were walking, she suddenly made a comical, overly-exaggerated veer off to the other side of the street. I was both confused... and amused... Later, she told me she felt like something was "controlling her" to keep walking straight down the street. So, she made a ridiculous detour. She wanted the walk to be her own choice, and she wanted to prove she could go any direction that she felt like... even if her destination would be the same.
We get schedules, meetings, chores, tasks, assignments, and soon it's routine that's ruling your life, and life that's constraining your liberty. When did spontaneity become unfashionable? Is life just doomed to be chained to meaningless, mindless, aimless routine? If I am my own person, then why does it feel like I am only what my routine makes me... Maybe life in itself is just a large-scale balancing act between routine... and spontaneity. Are we supposed to only live around these routines? If so, when does real living begin? What gives: is routine good or bad?
Off to stop procrastinating on homework...
