"Inertia": The Post Also Known As Motaki's Opinions On Routine

After I read this post, which you should read, I was inspired to write this.

Change has a seriously weird way of wriggling into your life.

Let's take this from the top. When I was about seven, I had a strong disdain of hunting. I hadn't the slightest desire to deer hunt, was ambivalent about small-game hunting; I was just about as far anti-hunter as you could get. And I hated people who wore fur. With a passion. I fished, and camped, and that was about it.

Enter YEAR EIGHT. I went into third grade. My mom and I moved in with the current Guy-My-Mom-And-I-Live-With, who I had hardly known at the time. I'd never even spoken to him.

He is about as pro-hunter as they come. He has a stuffed deer over his staircase - which I go up and down daily, and I glance at that deer every time I do- and a stuffed walleye over his fireplace. He fishes with my uncle every month, at least.

By the time I was ten, I was seriously envying him for going deer hunting. I didn't know about the magical Apprentice Hunter Validation that lets you start hunting at ten when you would need a firearms-safety certificate. I went on fishing trips with him. We even went camping for the weekend of my tenth birthday, him, my mom, my dog, and me.

He humors my fantasies, inadvertently introduced me to falconry, made it possible for me to have a dog.

He changed my life, shattered my routine.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

(This post was written for Kelly Hines of Southfriedchildren. :)