The Value of Waiting

As summer drags its weary ass out the door, I've had time to sit here and contemplate a lot of things. Namely, the following:

This is true.  I'm not a patient person.  I hate waiting in lines, pumping gas, and repeating myself, unless I'm repeating myself by virtue of teaching a new or interesting concept.  I dislike complaining and I don't like being around people who complain excessively. But I've had to learn the value of patience.

When I was in college for the first time, I was distracted by all of the different courses available.  Did I want to take this music class?  What about archaeology?  How about Russian?  Did it fit with my degree plan?  Who cares?  It sounds good!

Of course what happened is I wasted a LOT of time and didn't succeed my first time around.  I wasn't focused.  I didn't understand what was important, and I messed around and didn't invest my time in the thing that truly mattered...and that was the degree I was aiming for.

Now that I've decided to go back, I meet with an advisor on a regular basis and I make sure that I follow my plan to the letter.  I don't allow myself to become distracted by other things, no matter how good or tempting they may look.  It doesn't help that I find a LOT of things interesting, but if I continually "explore" and "nibble" at all of these interesting things, then I won't get to where I need to be.  I won't succeed.

So what is worth our patience, and our personal investment?  Obviously, I'm going to include the pursuit of knowledge in my answer.  It's the only thing you can take with you when you die.  What else?  How about the personal relationships in your life?  Who is important to you?  Is it your family and friends?  How do you treat them?  What about yourself?  Do you take care of yourself?  Are you as patient with yourself as you expect other people to be?  What about your personal success?  Where do you want to be in ten years?  In twenty?  I know, that seems so far away, it's hardly worth the bother of planning for.  But really, it is.  It's worth every minute.  It's worth it because time moves so much faster than you can imagine, and life changes all the time.  If you're not doing what you need to do now to get to where you want to be later,then you might want to take a good, hard look at what you're doing and change a few things.

I can tell you that the biggest motivating factor for change in my life has been my children.  When you become responsible for someone else, or a group of someone elses, then that is a real game-changer, especially if one of those someones might live with you for the rest of his life. You suddenly look at your life and decide that certain things aren't so important anymore, but being able to live long enough to take care of this kid, and live in relative comfort, is.

I still have years left before I finish school.  Sometimes, when things seem far away or impossible, its easy to get discouraged and give up.  Waiting doesn't come easy to a lot of people. But I promise, if you do, it will be worth it.