Should Old Habits Die Hard?

Image Courtesy: Nathaniel Cooper

I’ve picked up journaling again. I did it in the same fashion as my sophomore year of high school; beginning the entry with a “hello” and an overexaggerated plot line about completely mundane subject matter. Unexpectedly, I’ve started looking forward to the time of day where I get to write about whatever I want. It’s ritualistic—a coffee on my desk, my “good pen” in hand and a candle lit. This raised the question:

Should old habits die hard?

As I’ve aged, I’ve swapped out daily routines for whatever’s convenient. Marching into adulthood, I’ve lost hobbies, gained hobbies, delved into new relationships, ditched others and stopped going to places where I was once a regular. I began asking myself, why should I continue with old things I used to do and love when I could be finding new things? I think returning to these habits gives me a chance to figure out why I was so intertwined with it in the first place.

In middle school, I would watch Buzzfeed on YouTube for hours on end. For the longest, this was my dream job; writing blogs and doing interviews. After moving into my first apartment, I found myself returning to the same videos I watched in middle school. And as I thought about it, I realized something—I’m doing exactly what I originally wanted to do. I’m attending school to study journalism, writing blogs and doing interviews. 

Although I still have larger goals, these little habits paved the way. Even the habits that may seem minute—maybe certain interests should be pursued simply because they’ll give you a story to tell. 

I went to the same coffee shop every day in my hometown because I wanted a job there. I got the job, eventually. When I’m feeling nostalgic, praise god it’s a chain, I go to the same coffee shop in my town now. I joined the band in middle school purely for the sake of saying I could play an instrument—which I ended up being especially terrible at. But, I still feel as if this was a big piece of who I was at the time; even if that was a nerdy band kid who was bad at being in a band. Similarly to now, how I consider being a writer a chunk of who I am as a person.

I think I, along with many others, have felt the need for major change to be considered successful. My mind has always been set on a big city and a fast-paced lifestyle—but I’ve recently found that maybe I don’t have to shelve my small-town rituals in order to make progress. 

Strike out, 

Nathaniel Cooper

Editor: Stella Turner

Athens