While home for spring break, my sister took the test to obtain her driver’s license. My mom reminded her to pick up her parking pass when she goes back to school. I asked her if she knew where she was going to park. She told me “well I have to find a spot that isn’t already taken. Ya know because everyone who already has a parking pass has claimed their spot. I hope I can find one close to the front so that I don’t have to walk super far every day.” I found this to be an interesting conundrum. While the parking spaces aren’t officially assigned people usually park in the same one every day. That happened at my high school. A similar phenomenon occurs with seats in college lecture halls. Most of my friends including myself often get to class early the first few weeks to stake out our seats. Then we continue to sit in the same seats all semester. It’s really annoying when someone takes your unofficially assigned seat. My sister had this problem with the parking spot. I find it interesting that we as humans have a hard time functioning when we lose our favorite seat or parking spot. My sister says she would hate it if someone took her spot and tries not to take someone else’s spot. I have the same problem. It really ruins my day when someone takes my usual seat in class. I believe that many people like consistency. So when something interferes with our consistent behavior it makes us uncomfortable. I believe that doing something in a particular or familiar spot evokes a sense of familiarity, even if you aren’t where you normally are like if you are on vacation. When my family goes on vacation the bathroom always gets ‘set-up’ the same way. My parents take the left side of the sink for their personal items while my sister and I take the right side of the sink. These actions seek to bring back that sense of familiarity when we are in a new place or situation.

My sister is a political science and economics major. She plays water polo and is a member of many “fandoms”. A “fandom” is a group of people who follow, generally, a television show or a novel. Some of the fandoms that she belongs to follow shows such as Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service(NCIS). The group develops terminology that is only understood by other members of the group. For example, many fandoms “ship” certain characters. This means that the members of the fandom or just fans of the show want two characters to become a couple.