Post 7 - College Essay (Describe a personal habit that helps to define you as a person)

Describing myself as a person is a difficult task for me. Not because I do not know myself well enough, but quite the contrary: that I think I know myself well enough to feel as if there is too little about me to describe to make a lasting impression on anyone. And still, despite my discomfort, I happen to be replying to a question which specifically asks me to define myself as a person. This is an effect of one of my personal habits which I can remember doing since I started developing a decent attention span. Before I reveal my unique habit and how it helps define me as a person, I need to disclose a very relevant detail about my personality.

I am, and always have been, very indecisive. I can almost never make up my mind, and I realize that this can be a very negative attribute. Luckily, I picked up a certain habit at a very young age which helped me overcome my fickle-mindedness. Ever since I was a child, and every time I was faced with a situation where I had to pick one thing over another, I would designate the different available options to different fingers on my hands and then ask someone, anyone to pick a finger. As soon as one was chosen, my indecisiveness would vanish and I would be left with the one choice I was to commit to.

This little habit of mine helps define the impulsive person that I consider myself to be. I know that I act upon strong whims and desires; I know that I act upon impulses which result in both positive and negative consequences; and I know that that I act “rashly” sometimes. But I do not regret being so. Instead I cherish in the fact that because of my impulsive nature, my life is always exciting, always fresh, always colorful, and always unexpected. And although I know this is a characteristic to be cautious of to some extent, I relish in the satisfaction and relief the excitement brings to my conscience, and my habit of not knowing which decision I need to follow ensures exactly that.

This brings me to my point of why I am currently writing an essay which asks me to do something I am uncomfortable doing when I have other options to choose from. Well, before I started writing this essay, I chose five different topics which I could write about, and assigned them to the different fingers on my right hand after which I asked one of my roommates to pick one of those fingers, and he just so happened to pick the finger which represented this topic. If it was not for this habit of mine, I doubt that I would try out new things out of my comfort zone, or try to work harder on things which I was weak on. This habit not only helps define my impulsive personality, but also helps me explore uncharted areas in my life which I would have neglected otherwise. It helps me grow wholly as a person and helps me discover myself in an exciting manner.

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