Creatures of Habit

My father has to take two showers every single day of his life. It does not even matter if he has left the house or gotten dirty over the course of the day, he must take two showers. The first of these showers is taken immediately after waking up, and the second is taken prior to going to bed. After exiting the shower he must brush his hair with the same brush he has owned all 29 years of my life and let it air dry before he can do anything else. Don’t even think of suggesting a hair dryer to speed things up, his hair must be air-dried. Once we even challenged him to go to bed without showering and fixing his hair. It did not work though, because in the middle of the night we caught him taking a shower and fixing his hair with that same old yellow hairbrush.

As you can see from this example, my father is a creature of habit. I think as humans we all are creatures of one habit or another. There are just certain things that we must do each day for our lives to run smoothly. For me it is drinking a can of Diet Coke first thing in the morning, for my father it is taking multiple showers. These idiosyncrasies are a major part of who we both are, and everyone around us knows that these things must be done daily.

So, what are the habits of the people around you? Does your grandpa whistle and hum continuously, until everyone wants to scream like mine did? Does your husband have to watch ESPN before going to bed every night? Or maybe your daughter will only eat chicken nuggets that are perfectly round. Everyone has a habit that makes us unique and helps to define our personalities.

Design Team member Maegan Hall is a picker. She picks at anything she can get her fingernails on. From stickers to her own skin, she just loves to pick at things. When she received a roll of film back from the developer that caught her red handed in the act of a picking fest, she knew that she had to create this layout. Notice how Maegan uses small strips to highlight all of the many things she picks at instead of a typical paragraph style journaling passage. Good journaling does not always need to be lengthy to be effective, it can often times be conveyed through a great title a key phrases.

My husband and I have an ongoing argument over the half empty Diet Coke cans I leave scattered throughout the house. In my layout “Habitual Offender” I have documented not only my own bad habit, but also my husbands annoyance with my habit. Including the perspective of those that are affected by your habits can provide an interesting perspective to your layout.

This month I challenge you to take a closer look at the people around you. What are their habits? What do they say about that person? How do their habits help to define their personality? After you have completed your layout, upload it into the Scrapjazz gallery and be sure to include “November Journaling Challenge” in the title.

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