“It shouldn’t take longer than thirty minutes,” I told my employee.
A new hire, she needed an escort in order to gain access to a secure area. As her hiring manager, I volunteered to take her.
Upon arrival, we discovered a packed waiting room.
“I immediately regret this decision,” I thought to myself.
My employee turned to me with a look of concern on her face, but I assured her it shouldn’t take long. “We’ll be in and out,” I told her.
As we sat in the waiting room for the next two and a half hours, I went through a wide range of emotions.
First, there was denial…
“I’m sure they will call your name any minute,” I told my employee over and over.
Then came anger…
“I knew it was a mistake to hire her,” I mumbled under my breath.
Then came bargaining…
“Has anyone told you that you have the most beautiful eyes?” I asked the elderly receptionist.
Then the depression…
“I’m never going to see my wife again. This is my life now. I’m trapped here.”
And, finally, acceptance.
But before I could decide how I wanted to decorate my new home (aka the waiting room), the receptionist called my employee’s name. Ten minutes later we were free and heading back to our office.
“Let’s never speak of this,” I told her.
Waiting is Hard
No one likes to wait.
We want things now. Microwave dinners… Chinese takeout… Email and text messages… Amazon Prime shipping… Binge watching shows on Hulu…
Our lives are filled with things that give us instant gratification. And yet, somehow, it often isn’t enough.
I once ordered a pizza from Papa John’s that arrived to my front door in less than fifteen minutes. And you know what? It still was a tad slow for my liking.
We’re a society of impatient, imperfect beings – and our blogs often reflect this fact.
It’s why the web is littered with abandoned blogs. Rather than pay our dues, many of us give up. Or, possibly worse, we take shortcuts.
We’ll try to buy subscribers or Twitter followers. We’ll participate in link farms and other black-hat SEO practices. We’ll buy Facebook or Google ads before we have anything worth promoting.
We try to skip steps. We’ll try anything – anything! – to avoid having to wait.
As much as it hurts to endure, sometimes, the wait is necessary.
Sometimes, it’s worth it.
A hand-written letter is cherished much more than a grammatically-sad text. Home-cooked dinners taste better than frozen microwave meals. Success earned is more rewarding than success bought.
True, waiting is hard. But to?those with the conviction to see things through to the other side, it can be a rewarding experience.
Creative Commons Image via Shane Gorski.
