Repetition Repetition

It is no secret and it has been said many times that we humans are animals of repetitiveness. We repeat our actions over and over to make stimuli more and more familiar. I feel that the more we are exposed to repetitive actions, the more we are able to predict the responses and also the more we become accustomed to being in the situation.

Everyone has their morning routine: wake up, take shower, brush teeth, get dressed, spray on heavy fierce © abercrombie cologne, and be on their way. It is just something we do everyday. We do not think much of it, because at this time in the morning, and party due to a lack of sleep and much needed midnight call of duty playing, we are a robot at 6 am. We pretty much only have automated responses. If a question were to be addressed to us, we would reply with the sophisticated response of "uggghhh." Yet, how many times have you driven somewhere and then at your destination thought, "Huh.. I don't even really remember driving at all." This is the automatic processing that goes on in our repetitive brains. We are repetitive by nature.



i thought this picture was totally relevant
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Go back a couple hundred, no thousand, years. Cavemen. What did they do? They went out, got food, came back. Hunters and gatherers. Our nature has proned and primed us into our lives today. We do what we know to do.

I have come to enjoy some of the repetitive environments around me. I have a friend who asks me the exact same question at the exact same spot at the exact same time of the day. What goes through her mind is, Just like yesterday we are going to eat, I need to ask "what are you going to eat? And then just like magic I always respond. I like this social aspect of them being friendly. Yet sometimes, personally, my answers vary... from pizza to pizza bagel.

I do like to switch it up sometimes, but I think that is just me. I do not know why, but one of my favorite things to do is find a crazy alternative route home. One time from my friends house in Hiawatha, I decided to take county road, which eventually led me into toddville as I drove along some random gravel road. Yet, I enjoyed changing up the normal (especially because my parents were paying for gas.. nice!). I think I enjoyed this because I was adding new excitement to my life. Even thought I was purely content where I was going the normal way home, I might have gone into robot mode and forgot about the drive entirely! So let me promise you, going on a gravel road next to a farm is more fun than taking the boring blairs ferry road that is the repetitive drive.

So let me break this down, repetition is not bad, it is just normal. Repetition shapes our lives into what it is and how we view our concepts on certain things. Whether they are a hassle or not, repetition of these events dulls the edges. So if you are content where you are right now, or if you want to change it up, either is a pretty damn fine way to go.