I don't like doing things on a whim. I don't like not having a plan. I will never be a carefree spirit.
This irriated my college friends to no extent because they'd come up with a great idea, last minute of course, and I wouldn't be interested at all. The specific time that comes to mind was the night before my sorority's Formal my senior year. My date had some friends in town and we were all hanging out, when they decided they wanted to drive to the beach. It's probably a good hour drive to the coast and it was already well past midnight. Having no real plan except to head towards the shore, obviously I opted out. I have no idea what time they got back the next morning because I was long asleep, but it was after sunrise. The next day the beach-goers slept into the afternoon. Formal was quickly approaching and I had a well laid plan to get ready and get to the sorority house on time. My date, the carefree spirit he is, finally decided to wake up and go get food... around 4 pm. I was already getting ready. We were supposed to be at the house by 7 for pictures. After much chaos and several screaming phone calls, he strolled in around 6:45, threw on his suit and we headed out. He hadn't even had time to shower since the beach adventure and they had gone swimming in the gulf. We had an amazing time that night, truly, but the whole evening I kept thinking how much better it would have gone had he simply followed my well thought out plan. But alas, you cannot cage a free spirit.
But my planning is not limited to my social life. I need a plan in every aspect of my life. Like my hobbies...
My mom has a very funny story about the first time I tried to learn to knit. I was essentially knitting on a crochet hook. I don't want to butcher the story, so I won't even try to tell it, but I was about 10 and had no idea what I was doing. I learned from the girl next door... who also, clearly, had no idea what she was doing. After losing interest very quickly, like a 10 year old is apt to do, I didn't pick up knitting again until some time in high school. Luckily for me, Al Gore had invented the internet by then, and I stumbled across one of the greatest websites of all time. http://www.knittinghelp.com/ Man, was it easy to learn to knit after I found this collection of videos. (This was before Youtube was started.) I quickly set a rather lofty goal for myself: To knit a patchwork afghan. The pattern I found was very easy to follow and I slowly, but steadily, knitted piece after piece until I completed the afghan.
After following the plan and learning all the stitches required to make this afghan, I am able to knit almost anything.
When I decided about a year ago to start running, I put on sneakers and headed out the front door. I couldn't even make it the quarter mile down my street without dying. I quickly gave up my dreams of being a runner.
But then about 4 months ago, I was introduced to C25K! (insert dramatic music) A running PLAN! I could do this! And lo and behold... I ran my very first 5K in June.
Through all these instances, I see a trend. With a well laid plan and a goal in sight, I can't go wrong.
Finally someone who understands my dislike of spur-of-the-moment activities and a lack of at least a vague idea of what will unfold in the near future. Pretty much the only times I like to be 100% spontaneous are if I've planned ahead and allowed myself leeway in which to be spontaneous (so really, not that spontaneous at all).
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