On the contrary, this prompt is going to make me expose some embarrassing moments in my life.
So my undying habit that I can't change till now is reading. Of course that's a good thing you see, but when it becomes an addiction that takes away your sleep and distracts you, then it's a bit on the problematic side.
No, I'm not a scholar; I just love reading stories, fiction, adventure, action, horror, and historical fiction, and my big-time favorites are those mystical types of stories, those with sirens, werewolves, angels, and demons. I'm pretty reserved in nature; no matter how friendly I appear, I don't have many friends, so stories became my social escape from the realities of life.
And yes, I was actually that type of person that gets inspiration to write after reading a story or two; now come to think of the world in my head! my ideal world of fantasy, goodness I can daydream for Africa I could just sit here lost in my own imagination while conversing with a friend. Yes, I was that typical novel girl who could not sleep until I had finished that book. Even when my body is exhausted, my conscience won't allow me to sleep. I would feel so guilty to fall asleep... I can't sit in front of a television to watch a movie for more than one hour 🤣. But if that movie was in story form, forget it.
We die there
And that habit followed me into college; I could stay up all night reading novels with 500 chapters but to read my school books; it becomes a battle for the strong, not the weak.
I remember when I missed two of my tests! Because I stayed up all night, I was so exhausted that I slept through the morning of my test and woke up in the afternoon. That was the first time I missed, but I was able to do a cover-up test later on.
The second test, I forgot entirely... You know how your mind just assumes it's a particular day when it's not. For example, if today is a Friday but your mind just assumes it's a Thursday, I was so intrigued by the book I was reading that I lost track of the day. But God was on myself, and they didn't use that test. So I was saved.
I think I started noticing my addiction in my third year. I was to focus on every book app there is, and I wasn't focused on my books, and that was seen in my results. Ordinarily I can never get a D or E in my result, but when I saw 2 Ds and 1 E, nobody told me to sit up. I had to cut down on my reading, delete all the novel apps I had, and I even went as far as deleting my own stories—5 good stories I had already completed and wanted to publish.
I think my problem back then was that I distinguished between my spare time to read other books and relax from focusing on my school work. I stopped reading for only a month and went back again 🤣🤣.
Deleting my own write-ups came to hunt me down like karma would. I encountered a contest where I had to submit a complete story; they just needed 100 chapters and a minimum of 2000 words. The person who introduced the contest to me told me at the deadline, and she submitted hers and got $100, while I couldn't, and that was another regret on its own.
But on the bright side, I learn to balance my habits, and I never, I mean I never delete my stories, even though I couldn't complete them or they looked so cringe-worthy with grammatical errors, I left them in my story folder. I couldn't repeat the same fate.