Waiting Games

Open the door and you immediately regret the decision to do this today. But it is near the end of the month and you have put it off long enough. So you tell yourself but a part of you still knows this is not a great way to start the day. You walk past the three spiked hair, wish they could be shirtless right now, crossfit guys on their phones, pretending to talk to someone so they seem important. No doubt they are here because the one friend that drives needed to pay a ticket or something. You walk past the teen that just finished the exam and can't wait to get out there and show us all how its done. You walk up to the red ticket machine and pull a number. Eighty-four. Not to bad. At least it isn't in the hundreds, you think as you scan the room for a spot to prop up in and claim for yourself in the midst of the chaos. You take your coat off and then you hear it. "Next! Number seventeen!" Your heart sinks into the pit of your stomach and you sigh. In that moment you realize you are just another faceless member of the herd. You sigh a deep, dark sigh in almost perfect unison with every other poor sap that thought today might just be the day no one else shows up to the DMV.

Waiting is an old man's game. I am too young to be in one place too long. I have a life to live and important other things to do. But is that true? Have you ever really waited? Waited patiently? It can be quite a relief sometimes if approached from the right angle.

According to several sources, in a lifespan of 70 years, a person waits for almost 3 of those years. Three years of waiting in lines, waiting for the restroom, waiting for the page to finally print off the copy machine, waiting for the light to turn green, waiting for the next best thing to come out of the store you have camped outside of the week before Christmas.

I recommend the following alternatives to joining the chorus of heavy sighing:

• people watch (that's a given but have fun with it. what brought that guy to the point where he would want that tattoo or did he?, etc.)
• try to remember the words to a song you haven't sung since grade school
• relive the best and worst days of your life (maybe you'll learn a lesson or two)
• let someone in front of you (blasphemy, sure, but you'd be surprised at the conversations you'll strike up)
• imagine yourself as the person you are waiting to see (how many crazy people have they already had to deal with today. Not including you..)
• attempt to not play with your phone (its more fun than you think)

Whatever you do, wait with pride. Know you are one of many. Be the example of "common" courtesy and friendliness. Learn something about yourself. Do not waste three years of your life taking the easy way out and simply giving in to the boredom.