Worth the Wait
This too shall pass - self containment, entertainment & enlightenment during the era of COVID-19
My dad has always said 'a minute gone is a minute wasted'. Considering what a stickler for punctuality he is, his lack of laziness (sundays not included) and constant mind whirring, I think he's followed this rule pretty well. As for me, there are some days when you just wait for a time. Whether it's lunchtime which means you've survived the morning, or it's 5pm so you can have a rejuvenating cup of coffee. You could be a fiend who looks forward to 7pm to work out. Or you could be like me who enjoys the quiet of the afternoon and the night. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that we spend a lot of our time waiting. Waiting for a time, a meal, a start, an email, a break, a nap, a workout, a conversation.
When we're young and in school, our goals seem pretty clear, the responsibility is minimal, we go through the motions. We wait for the years to pass so that we may get a new phone, we're old enough to come back post 7pm, we don't have to deal with the odour of the Chemistry Lab, we survive Board examinations and we graduate. College life seems one of the rare times in our lives that we aren't waiting for anything. Not even bad weather to pass so you can step out (unless it's a morning lecture). On the contrary, you want time to stand still. It's the perfect amalgamation of being an adult but not quite a grown up. The Waiting Game doesn't bother us. If the early twenties in one's life offer a heady rush like no other, the late twenties are akin to the feeling of going down the stairs and missing a step. You reach the bottom but feel shaky, your heart is still beating fast and while you feel glad not to be injured, you wonder how you missed it in the first place. At the age of twenty seven, our pre-frontal cortex i.e. the decision making part of our brain develops. Ok, so now we have a handle on things. We can grab life by the horns. Action over inaction. We aren't waiting for anything anymore. Even so, we still wait. We wait for the results of our decisions. Some wait longer, some can't wait at all.
If we're all players in The Waiting Game, the almighty Destiny is like an omniscient presence. Do we make our destiny or is that justifying our actions towards our end goals? Is anything we do of consequence if it is all already laid out for us or is that simply explaining our lackadaisical approach? We may work hard to prove ourselves in a professional environment but leave our love lives to chance (or a swipe) or vice versa (Que Sara Sara). And then there's Sheer Dumb Luck. If Destiny is somewhere between a Jury that delivers a verdict and Judge who simply announces it, SDL is like the weather conditions for a tennis match at the Wimbledon. Wholly unpredictable, usually unfavourable and very powerful. When it's good, it's great, you can't believe it and can't get enough of it but when it's bad, you curse everything around you and question why it's happening to you. You can wear stones, chant prayers and bribe priests to try to make SDL swing your way, for the wait to seem shorter (it's always the duration of the wait, not what we're actually waiting for) but as the current surreal circumstances have proven, we can do everything and anything, seize the day but here we all are waiting. Waiting for a vaccine, a cure, a day we can step out without fear of getting ill.
How do we make it better for ourselves? Be patient? Yes, patience is an often overlooked virtue that increases your stamina to ultimately win the Waiting Game. But you can't be patient and not do anything right? What more can we do? Work hard at perfecting your skills (for Instagram), managing your stress levels (for your own peace) and maintaining calm (for the good of your home). Persevere through these tough times, the challenges that lie ahead and the inane WhatsApp messages.
Good things come to those who wait...or do they? Amazon has made it simpler - good things come (quicker) to those who pay. I don't condone shortcuts but sometimes in life, we're waiting for so many things that it seems unfair to wait for a shopping delivery too.
Happy waiting for the next one!
My dad has always said 'a minute gone is a minute wasted'. Considering what a stickler for punctuality he is, his lack of laziness (sundays not included) and constant mind whirring, I think he's followed this rule pretty well. As for me, there are some days when you just wait for a time. Whether it's lunchtime which means you've survived the morning, or it's 5pm so you can have a rejuvenating cup of coffee. You could be a fiend who looks forward to 7pm to work out. Or you could be like me who enjoys the quiet of the afternoon and the night. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that we spend a lot of our time waiting. Waiting for a time, a meal, a start, an email, a break, a nap, a workout, a conversation.
When we're young and in school, our goals seem pretty clear, the responsibility is minimal, we go through the motions. We wait for the years to pass so that we may get a new phone, we're old enough to come back post 7pm, we don't have to deal with the odour of the Chemistry Lab, we survive Board examinations and we graduate. College life seems one of the rare times in our lives that we aren't waiting for anything. Not even bad weather to pass so you can step out (unless it's a morning lecture). On the contrary, you want time to stand still. It's the perfect amalgamation of being an adult but not quite a grown up. The Waiting Game doesn't bother us. If the early twenties in one's life offer a heady rush like no other, the late twenties are akin to the feeling of going down the stairs and missing a step. You reach the bottom but feel shaky, your heart is still beating fast and while you feel glad not to be injured, you wonder how you missed it in the first place. At the age of twenty seven, our pre-frontal cortex i.e. the decision making part of our brain develops. Ok, so now we have a handle on things. We can grab life by the horns. Action over inaction. We aren't waiting for anything anymore. Even so, we still wait. We wait for the results of our decisions. Some wait longer, some can't wait at all.
If we're all players in The Waiting Game, the almighty Destiny is like an omniscient presence. Do we make our destiny or is that justifying our actions towards our end goals? Is anything we do of consequence if it is all already laid out for us or is that simply explaining our lackadaisical approach? We may work hard to prove ourselves in a professional environment but leave our love lives to chance (or a swipe) or vice versa (Que Sara Sara). And then there's Sheer Dumb Luck. If Destiny is somewhere between a Jury that delivers a verdict and Judge who simply announces it, SDL is like the weather conditions for a tennis match at the Wimbledon. Wholly unpredictable, usually unfavourable and very powerful. When it's good, it's great, you can't believe it and can't get enough of it but when it's bad, you curse everything around you and question why it's happening to you. You can wear stones, chant prayers and bribe priests to try to make SDL swing your way, for the wait to seem shorter (it's always the duration of the wait, not what we're actually waiting for) but as the current surreal circumstances have proven, we can do everything and anything, seize the day but here we all are waiting. Waiting for a vaccine, a cure, a day we can step out without fear of getting ill.
How do we make it better for ourselves? Be patient? Yes, patience is an often overlooked virtue that increases your stamina to ultimately win the Waiting Game. But you can't be patient and not do anything right? What more can we do? Work hard at perfecting your skills (for Instagram), managing your stress levels (for your own peace) and maintaining calm (for the good of your home). Persevere through these tough times, the challenges that lie ahead and the inane WhatsApp messages.
Good things come to those who wait...or do they? Amazon has made it simpler - good things come (quicker) to those who pay. I don't condone shortcuts but sometimes in life, we're waiting for so many things that it seems unfair to wait for a shopping delivery too.
Happy waiting for the next one!
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