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Firstly:
Secondly:
A column
I was made to think of things I’d quit recently and it made me realise that, for the most part, I don’t find quitting things to be particularly tough. I was on dating apps and then I wasn’t; I smoked cigarettes and then I didn’t; I ate and drank repulsive amounts of pasta and beer and then I stopped. I am by no means good at everything, but I am pretty good at letting go.
Still, I knew there had to be something I’d struggled to give up on, and I thought and thought and scratched my ear and it hit me. What have I hated quitting? Easy: q-tips. I no longer use them but gosh, I wish I did. Were q-tips to knock on my door and beg me to take them back, I would embrace them instantly. My knees would go weak and I would find it impossible to resist. I just love them.
I know they’re bad for me - I’ve known for a long time. There was a piece someone wrote about a decade ago, I think, which made the point quite forcefully. The journalist had spoken to a doctor and that doctor had asked, begged people not to stick q-tips in their ears anymore. He was sick and tired of having to take care of people who’d put q-tips in their ears and got them stuck, or ended up bleeding, or with burst eardrums, or irritated skin.
He knew that they felt good and that maybe brands hadn’t always been as clear as they could have been on the topic, but now was the time to stop. I read the piece and nodded and I did: nothing at all. I kept buying q-tips in the supermarket, with the same sort of half-guilty glee people usually reserve for sickeningly sweet desserts. I don’t like sugary foods but christ, I love violating my ear canal.
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