A History of Waiting

Did you know the average American will spend six months of his or her life waiting for a red light to turn green? Or, that the average person spends something like five years waiting in line? We live in a fast-paced time. We have cellphones that can do more in five minutes than any form of technology could do one hundred years ago. Yet, find me one person who can wait patiently. Even the best of us are familiar with the ache of wanting something right this very second.

I'm brought to wondering about waiting because I just applied for a job that I really, really, really want to get.

I have applied to a few jobs where I thought to myself, "that would be an awesome job for me! I would love to get it!" and I would never hear a peep from the employers. However, there were often dilemmas with the position that let me look at the brighter side: the job was out of state or didn't pay as well as I really needed it to. This time, everything is really really nice about the job. It will be bad enough to not get hired, but I'm a daydreamer. I've looked at apartments and already done the math for paying off student loans with that salary. I've imagined decorating my first place and shopping for dishes. I want to call the company and say, "Excuse me but plllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssssssssssssssse hire me!!! This is pretty much my dream job that I wanted when I was like four and it would kinda make my life if you would hire me and I could really use the money because I have lots of bills to pay and I want to get married very badly and I can't afford to do these things right now. I will happily work for half of what you are offering and I will work eighty hours a week with no complaints for the first six months if you'd like, just please, please, please hire me!"

To do so, however, would be considered bad form. A fact within itself that is most unfortunate because I am quite good at latching on people's knees and begging if I do say so myself. Anyway, when I hit these sort of moments, I turn to history for comfort. If I am very lucky, I may receive and email or phone call in a couple of days telling me either the job is not not meant to be or to schedule an interview. I might even get a notice to say, we are reviewing candidates if you don't hear from us by such and such a date, you aren't considered. Although, obviously, I hope to receive a positive response, at least a rejection will be fast and concrete.

Imagine it were 1911 instead of 2011 (overlooking the fact that I wouldn't be applying for jobs, but whatever). News travels slow as molasses and you wouldn't have any choice but to accept that. News will always come faster and faster and, yet, it will never be fast enough. We look at our speedy technology as an advancement and, I suppose, in some cases it is. I cannot imagine military families waiting to here news from their loved ones for months on end like they did during the Civil War. Sometimes families identified their loved ones by seeing their photograph in the papers. Could you imagine? "'Aftermath of Battle in Gettysburg' Say is that Jimmy?" Or out in the prairie...like in Dances with Wolves, when the horribly unbearable wagon driver comes up behind Kevin Costner who is looking at a human skeleton and says, "Somebody back East is saying 'Now, why don't he write?'"

On the complete other hand though, with everything going, to quote my mother, "zip, zip, zip!" who has time to slow down and appreciate anything? At the risk of sound incredibly old, ahem, kids these days have no understanding of just enjoying life. Everything is on the computer and there is an unfulfilled desire for a "newer" model. I would give anything for a few moments of watching the clouds of the grass blowing in the breeze.

You may have noticed, but I started this blog without really knowing where it was going. Here is my ending thought/question: Presuming humans will never be satisfied with any waiting time, are our so-called advancements really that?