Babila Mutia II

14. Needing recovery time after socialising: You want to go out again tomorrow? We went out yesterday. Yesterday needs to settle first. I need to lie down. I need to be alone. I need to return to my natural habitat. I need to exist without anybody asking me questions. Please don’t interpret my recovery period as me not loving you. I had a great time. My brain just needs to clock out. Back-to-back plans for a whole week sound like a punishment, not fun.

13. Procrastinating like my life depends on it, then somehow thriving under a deadline: I can spend three weeks avoiding something. Three weeks. Thinking about it. Knowing I need to do it. Feeling guilty about not doing it. Doing everything except it. Then the deadline arrives, and suddenly… WE HAVE A SYSTEM. I become the most productive woman alive. I don’t even understand it. My parents didn’t raise a quitter, but they sure did raise a woman who apparently believes urgency is a productivity tool.

10. Needing to know WHY: It drives me insane when people act without a reason—because I need the reason. Why did you do that? Why did you say that? Why did you think that was okay? Why did you choose that? Why? Why? WHY? And sometimes the answer is simply: “I don’t know. I just did.” Excuse me? You mean there wasn’t a 47-step thought process behind the decision? You just… did it? Fascinating.

8. Being extremely self-aware and still not doing the thing: This one is particularly insulting. I know exactly what I’m doing wrong. I know it’s bad to procrastinate. I know what I’m avoiding. I know what would make things easier. I know the consequences. I can literally analyze my own behavior in real time. And then… I still don’t do the thing. The self-awareness is there. However, the execution is currently unavailable.

5. Needing an exit from a chat conversation: Sometimes I get tired of texting before the conversation is actually over. We can be having a perfectly good conversation. You reply. I reply. And suddenly, somewhere around message 17, my brain goes: “That’s enough interaction for now.” That is why, when I send the last message and someone reacts instead of replying, I am so grateful. You don’t understand—you just released me from prison. Now I can leave peacefully without wondering whether I’m being rude.

4. Playing the same song until my brain gets tired of it: When I like a song, I don’t just listen to it. I move into the song. Same song. Again. Again. Again. Again. Until eventually my brain decides, “Okay, we’ve extracted everything we needed from this experience.” And then I don’t listen to it again for six months. The repetition is weirdly comforting, though. It’s familiar. Predictable. My brain already knows what’s coming while listening.