To Whom It May Concern:
Don’t test my patience…
…because I will pass any such test with flying colors. So just don’t bother.
When I was a teenager, I was waiting in line with a friend to ride a roller coaster, and one of the guys in front of us turned around to make light conversation. He told us his name and introduced us to the other guy who he was waiting with (a guy who had been popping and locking for the entire wait up to that point, which is a detail that is unimportant to the story, but may be the reason why I still remember this conversation so well). The talkative one and the dancer dude were twins, and, more importantly, they were tired of waiting.
“Waiting in line must be the greatest torture known to man,” the first dude asserted. I made insincere noises in agreement as he continued. “When I have kids, their punishment is going to be waiting with nothing to do.”
Perhaps if he had been less pleasant overall or if I had been more bold, I might have rolled my eyes and said what I was really thinking. Yeah, dude, I would also rather be on the ride than standing here right now. But I have plenty to think about and plenty to talk about, so I would certainly not describe this situation as torturous.
Sometimes, I wonder if I have gotten too used to waiting around. To doing things and not knowing the results for days or months or years. To delaying the process of finding and solving inconveniences until an ideal time which may never come.
I don’t know much about business, but I have heard the term “pain point,” and I recently became obsessed with it. So many aspects of my life are now classified in my head as pain points.
I have generally been pretty bad at identifying my own inconveniences. I had a friend who found me sitting in a dimly lit room on multiple occasions, and always ask me (with a fair amount of shock in his voice), “Don’t you want to turn on a lamp?” As I am both patient AND stubborn, I would double down on wanting that dim level of light, which did feel true at the time, but it had also not occurred to me to think to want anything different until he brought it up. I wonder if this excessive use of “pain point” will help me to identify more problems and eventually lead me to solve them. Maybe. And if not, I’ll just have to try something else.
I’ve learned over time that patience IS a virtue, but there are other traits that are also good to have and that I need to work on.
I hope you’re doing well.
Sincerly,
Joy
P.S.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Still Reading: Supernova by Ris V. Rose
Recent Faves: “Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out” by Richard Siken, “hunger and i” by therawpoetry, “My heart is heavy.” by Cozy In The Woods
My Recent Creations: “to sit”, “Greenhouse Blues”, and “Til Tomorrow, Love”
Current Projects: Reformatting parts of my website and adding more resources for other online writers and creatives
Secret link to what is probably my favorite poem of all time
Photo by Lukas Hartmann from Pexels