Routines

I just got back last night from GA, and each way back and forth amounts to about a 470 mile drive. Now, I am all for getting to your destination in the fastest way possible. No back roads or strange routes for me. However, I am also someone who drinks a lot of soda, coffee, juice, water, etc. on a road trip. Beverages help to keep me awake and alert while I’m driving. As you can imagine, with high beverage consumption comes the need to make frequent stops. How many stops? Hmm… I would say on average that I need to stop about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours of a road trip.

The funny thing that I noticed on this trip was that after having made this drive about 4 times already, every single time I stopped I found myself in a familiar place. To be clear, I have not mapped out the best exits or picked out a clean place to specifically stop each time. In fact, I pulled off the interstate each time thinking only of the need to stop, and in no way remembering that I had ever stopped there before. However, once I walked into the gas station / restaurant, I realized that I had, in fact, already stopped here on previous trips. This deja vu did not happen to me just once or even twice, but at least three times on my drive to GA. Out of all the hundreds of gas stations and restaurants at all the exits, I kept picking the same places to stop that I had picked the last time I travelled that road.

It got me thinking about routines, and how, even if we aren’t intentionally fostering a routine, we might be establishing one we haven’t recognized yet. a routine that has to do with places and times is one thing, but I think we set up routines on a more internal level than we realize. Not finishing a story and moving to the next one because you lost inspiration for one and found it for something else is one thing. But never finishing a story just because you are always getting distracted by the next one is a dangerous routine. Looking in the mirror one morning and realizing that you look a little fat in those pajamas is one thing. But looking in the mirror every morning and mentally putting yourself down for ten minutes is something else entirely.

Almost everyone I know finds comfort in routine to some degree. Although we begin to crave a week away from the ordinary where we can relax on vacation or explore some exotic city, a day or two after leaving home we start to long for it again. We long for our routines because they bring us comfort and make us feel normal. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just be careful that the routines you create for yourslf are healthy ones. There’s nothing wrong with stopping at a clean gas station every trip. On the other hand, always stopping at the one with a dairy queen and getting a peanut buster parfait can be hell on your hips.