personal pitfalls

A little more than a month ago, a girl I go to school with wrote this amazing op-ed for the YDN. It's all about what she calls "personal pitfalls," tiny little baby mistakes we all make in our daily lives that we just can't seem to avoid. They're "nickel-and-dime defects - punctuality, remembering birthdays, shower etiquette," she says (hers used to be using too many prepositional phrases and leaving hair on the wall of the shower), and maybe, if we acknowledged them, we'd get better at them. The op-ed ends with one of those calls to action that so many op-eds seem to end with; we should write down our personal pitfalls, keep an eye out, and fix them next time.

When I first read it, I think I was kind of scared of the idea of writing down all the little things I do that are irksome or annoying. I know my problems - and I know I have a lot of them - but writing them down would somehow make them more official or more true or more obvious. And, honestly, I figured there were too many to count. 

But, for some reason - maybe because it's break and I've got nothing better to do - I think I'm ready to start my list. And so, here are my own personal pitfalls: 

• I open too many tabs in Safari - sometimes when I'm writing papers, and mostly when I'm not.
• I still bite my nails, even though my dentist told me not to.
• On that note, I should be better about brushing/flossing/mouthwash.
• I use too many M dashes.
• I leave hair on the wall in the shower.
• I throw out food in the bathroom trashcans, even though Ian Hobbes has repeatedly told us to stop doing that.
• I drink too much Diet Coke when I'm home. Actually. Enough to fill a bathtub. 
• I still pick at my face, even though I'm always trying to stop.
• I hate socks.
• I'm bad at talking about my feelings.
• And at asking for help.
• And at admitting I'm wrong.
• Also, I hate doing laundry, and I'm bad at folding clothes.
• I use the word "also" too often.
• I'm pushy sometimes.
• Sometimes I do things just for the glory.

I don't mean any of these things in a self-depricating way; they don't make me feel worse about myself in that "oh-I'm-so-fat" kind of way. I think they're just facts, and that's fine. Maybe one day I'll fix some of them. Or maybe I'll keep adding to the list, and that'll be fine too.