I think everyone has rules they set themselves to try and get by day by day. Brush your teeth, always eat everything on your plate, never fart in bed and pull the duvet covers over your partner's head. Simple things that help ensure you stay a functioning human being. And then, most of us I assume, have additional rules we've gathered over years of experience. Perhaps these rules are subconscious, but they're there. Some of the best I've ever heard are "There are many ways to enter a pool, the ladder is not one of them" and the famous one from Douglas Adams' book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Always have your towel with you".
The first rule I ever made for myself was during High School, and it's served me well over the years, I refer to it as Rule Number 1 and it's similar to the towel idea but evolved independently.
Rule Number 1 - Always carry a pen
It sounds odd, I know, and many people have sought to make sure I knew over the years, "Why are you going back?" they'd ask and I'd reply "I forgot my bloody pen". But it has served me surprisingly well, and it's why it's maintained a five-year long status. Right now it appears I've broken that rule and surely I'll pay.
But yesterday I broke two of my other rules and was reminded why they're rules in the first place. The first, the older of the two, is Always take a morning shower. Sounds obvious, I know, but on Sundays when you've overslept until 10, it's tempting to not take a shower and to lounge around all day in your dressing gown. Of course, that is the wrong thing to do, you'll never get anything done if you do that. So I got dressed, but not washed. I felt grubby and oily. I looked alright, one day without a shower isn't going to be immediately noticeable, but I felt terrible. I reminded myself, over the course of Sunday, why I have taken a shower every morning since I hit adolescence. Bar, of course, the mornings I woke on another person's floor or sofa, with a banging headache and the very real knowledge that I'd probably spent the last night burning the candle at both ends. Never a wise decision. In those times I'm more driven to leave and/or make any required amends promptly, then I am with the state of my scattered hair or my shuddered, alcohol ridden odor.
Of course, last Sunday, I hadn't woke from a night out on the lash, but rather a long shift, and so I did not shower. By midday I regretted it and felt somewhat embarrassed by my not-so-pristine state which led me to break the second, rather newer rule: Whenever possible, especially when alone, leave the house. It's one I've found more and more useful as of late, when I'm living more and more often on my own.
But because I didn't feel quite so up-to-it, I remained inside for almost the whole day, excluding around fifteen minutes in which I went to buy six eggs for 89p from the nearby corner Tescos.
Bad decision, I spent half the day playing Minecraft. I love video games but I have to restrain myself, if I don't I can easily find myself at half two in the morning, contemplating whether it's tiredness or hunger that's bothering me more.
Additionally, if I don't leave the house, at least for a while, I've found I fall into a pit of despair. I may be shy, but I'm still an extrovert nonetheless. If I'm not around people I get rather bad angst. Better I am in a library, reading or typing by myself, then in my house alone doing it. However much I used to pretend like I was introverted, I'm not, I'm extroverted and it's sometimes just as bad as the former.
Despite all this, I'm glad I broke those rules yesterday. It reminded me why I have them, to avoid myself falling into disrepair. I guess every so often you have to break rules like this to remember truly why you have them, else you just start bending them on your own. And then where would we be, penless, dirty and alone, and no one wants a world like that.
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