The waiting game

An On-the-Go Culture/Cutting Lines

In this day and age, we have streamlined countless everyday activities to maximize time. Time is gold or rather money, as some would like to say, and society has created ways for us to bypass the requirement of waiting in life, or at least minimize it. We have cell phones to contact people, so we no longer have to wait to talk to them. Where before we had to wait for a meal to be cooked with ‘love’ to get our nutrition, we now have several faceless transnational corporations that somehow materialize billions of chickens worldwide, allowing us to skip the once intimate moments of waiting for a meal.

But society is far from winning the battle of erasing the virtue of waiting, and between the cracks of its attempts, we still find moments where we are forced to slow down, stop, and take a break from life’s perpetual movements.

So what are you waiting for? Your nice afternoon tea served with crumpets? Put that aside for later and let’s get to this.
“Will he make it on time?”
We all know that feeling of waiting for a professor to arrive to class. Most students lessen the agony of waiting by going out of the room to chat with their comrades. Some take this opportunity to cram for other subjects while a few would attempt to take a nap despite the cacophony that reverberates against the walls of the classroom.

If the professor still has not arrived for around twenty minutes, students become restless and scream free cut at the back of their heads. Some start heading out the door exasperated that the professor did not announce his or her absence in advance. They think that their time has been wasted and that they could have done more important activities than waiting. Meanwhile, other students prefer to remain and wait patiently for thirty long minutes until someone declares an official free cut.

We might not get immediate rewards for waiting for a free cut. But those who left early risk the possibility of the professor still arriving. This becomes worse when the professor checks the attendance and decides to give a surprise quiz. Blessed are those who are patient enough to wait.
And so we wait; for a lover who’s on her last class, so we can vent about our horrible day; for MLS to stop crashing, so we can make our dream schedule; for that dreaded exam to reach our hands, so we can finally get it over with; or for that new Naruto chapter and TFTFZ episode, with no other reason but the sheer pleasure of it.

“When We Roll The Dice”
Waiting is a tricky concept. Andy Warhol says, “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.” What makes waiting exciting? Is it the uncertainty that it entails? When it comes to waiting, there is no concrete way to foresee the turn of events. Often though, we find ourselves saying that we have to wait for everything “right.” The right place, person, timing and the moment. We hold on to the ambition of a tomorrow that is yet to be determined. Perhaps, we are fueled to move forward by what we do not know. Perhaps, it is because it is precisely in the process of waiting, we find the meaning of hope.

Wait a minute. The virtue of patience is most of the time interchanged with the concept of waiting. It is possible that this is the way our minds try to rationalize our actions. Notice how waiting is always associated with positive results, this is where we must draw the line. Looking at it in a different perspective, waiting could plausibly be an excuse that people use out of fear for their insecurities. They project themselves in the future, for a chance having a mindset that they would be ready until that moment comes.

“We all have our reasons for waiting, but life should go on.”
“Good things happen to those who wait.” This could apply in some instances, but waiting does not have to mean that your world has to be at a standstill. Being at a standstill eliminates the possibilities of chances. The chances mentioned earlier mean the opportunity to grow through learning and growing through our experiences. Why hold yourself back, constrain yourself and be a prisoner of time? Waiting gives us the possibility of having our eyes opened realizing our passions; realizing how much we want something, how far we are willing to work for it.

Falling Into Place
In a culture where patience is considered a virtue, waiting helps in most cases. It really is difficult to endure the tedium that comes with postponing your own impulses and desires, to wait until the perfect time arrives. Or it could be the discomfort of waiting for the next LRT train during rush hours. We each have our own motivations that urge us to just keep waiting and not give up. But as long as you can make it work and giving yourself to grow even more whether it’s waiting for a free cut or your big break in life, and working at your passions in life everything is bound to end up perfectly. Time is too short to let you pass life by.