Things I Used to Do

Do you ever suddenly realize that there are things you used to do that you just…don’t…anymore? Not because they were bad, just because you stopped?

I’ve had a few of those moments lately.

Today, for instance, I realized my hair was pretty crazy, but I didn’t want to wash it before working out this evening, and I thought, “Oooo I haven’t worn my favorite hat in forever! I’ll wear that!”

I dug out my favorite hat, put it on, and immediately discovered why I haven’t worn it in forever: it’s stretched out and doesn’t stay on my head.

Mystery solved.

But now that I know, I want to buy a new hat because I used to wear it all the time and I loved it. And why should the stretching of one hat mean the end of my hat era entirely?

Or, another example, I recently realized that I hadn’t played games requiring speed and adrenaline in…years? Months, at the very least. (What even is time at this point? Is it still 2020 for anyone else??)

And when I thought about why I’d been denying myself the joy of basically inducing a panic attack through every single round of Dutch Blitz or Slapjack, I discovered it’s because my roommate doesn’t like speed games. She would never, of course, stop me from playing aggressive (and sometimes violent) games that require the stealth and speed of a cat, but because she is almost always around when I’m playing games, I just tend to consider her wishes and not choose those games that she hates. It’s a natural tendency and I didn’t even know I was doing it until my palms started to itch from not being able to wrestle a spoon out of my opponent’s hand while yelling, “I got the big end!!”

While I’m certain there are things I used to do that I stopped for good reason (eating ramen noodles for lunch every day, for instance) I’m discovering that some things just fall by the wayside by accident. There are things that have phased out of my life that I miss. And I’d like to get back to them.

So if you need me, I’ll be playing Dutch Blitz while wearing my new hat and bringing back the phrase, “Cool beans,” because I’ve missed saying it. It’s time to start doing things I used to do.

What about you? What’s something you used to do? And do you miss it?