Posts tagged patience

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago… I had a little thing called patience.

I’m not sure when I lost it, or if it’ll ever come back, but sadly it’s been a while since I’ve seen it. 

I admittedly had a long day today; work was tiring, it’s Monday, and I’m exhausted.  All I could think about was coming home, changing into comfy clothes, watching some mindless television, and going into relax mode.

I usually wait a couple of minutes for the elevator in my apartment building; one or two minutes on average. However, a lot of people have been moving into the building in the past few days, and the elevators have been unusually tied up.  Tonight:  I waited about 7 minutes.  After minute 4, I started feeling rage inside.  I huffed and puffed, I did that annoying thing when you repeatedly press the elevator button (Seriously?  What is that gonna do?) and I was about to lose it.

I then caught myself engaging in this ridiculous behavior and got myself in check.  Seven minutes in the scheme of your entire life is nothing…. so relax, maniac.

I’ve caught myself doing this more often than I’d like to admit lately.  I have no patience for slowpokes (seriously, who ever said NYC is a ‘fast-paced’ city?  I am never around ANYONE moving quickly), long lines, incompetent people taking forever doing god-knows-what, and even slow internet speeds.  I get mad, I get worked up, and I’ve often even ‘fled the scene’ and given up on whatever I was doing.  I’ve waited on lines at Starbucks that were taking WAY too long and just left.  I really wanted that coffee, but not THAT badly.

I think it’s acceptable to lose your patience in certain scenarios — but for the most part, it’s probably a good idea to learn how to deal with things better and not grind my teeth and clench my fists when the 98 year old lady in front of me at CVS is using 36 coupons and moving at snail-speed.  Besides, why am I in such a rush?  Where do I have to be??!  

I guess I have to practice being more ‘zen’ so I don’t end up going into cardiac arrest before I’m 35.  And, as they say, patience is a virtue.  

I think as we get older, us New Yorkers are constantly on the move - we talk fast, eat fast, drive fast, walk fast, and think fast.  Everything is GO GO GO! and we don’t want to be slowed down by people or things that get in our way.

That might be the New York norm, but I think it’s important that we learn to stop, breathe, and as an homage to the movie ‘Bad Boys 2’, we need to learn to “woo-sah.”  

Go ahead, try it out… 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTGdAGPDBpo

Addendum: this morning I saw a man at the deli have a conniption because his egg sandwich was taking too long.  He started sweating and cursing under his breath and I feared he would jump over the counter and strangle one of the workers.  Yikes!  I probably should have sent him the link to this post… 

Well, folks, it happened.  After 107 days (but who’s counting?) of unemployment, I gotsssss me a job!  I was offered a position about two weeks ago at a company here in Manhattan that specializes in digital media and research.  I start Monday…as in, four days from now.

:::having a slight panic attack just thinking about it since change scares me:::

I was sitting on the beach a couple of Friday’s ago (nice life, right?) when I got the call.  I was really nervous and anxious when I saw the number because I knew it was this particular company, and I was expecting to hear from them regarding their decision.  I accepted the offer, and then that night decided to look back on the process of applying.  If you are currently unemployed or find yourself in a similar situation in the future (although I should hope not), it might help you to know that finding a job can be a LONG drawn-out process, but you always have to stay positive. 

Here’s why:

• I applied online to this company on March 12.
• I had a phone interview on April 3.
• I followed up regarding the phone interview on April 10, and on April 16 was told that they would not be moving forward with bringing me in for the in-person interview due to my lack of digital experience.  Ouch.  
• On April 19, I received a call saying that the woman I had the phone interview with pushed for me, and now they wanted to meet me. 
• I went in to interview on two separate dates, on two separate weeks, and met about seven different people in the process.  The last interview was on May 1.
• I received the offer on May 18.

I don’t mean to bore you with the timeline, but it isn’t easy out there — and now you have evidence of it.  In this process you have to have an insane amount of patience and accept that things take time. A LOT OF TIME.

Starting a new job can be really scary; it’s unknown territory: a new office location, new coworkers, new culture.  I’m the ‘new kid in school’ who’s lost in the halls and doesn’t have any friends yet.  I need to be trained and taught and I need to get acclimated to new policies, procedures and systems.  I won’t lie, I think about all of this and start to have minor (okay, sometimes major) anxiety and fear about the entire process.  But I do know that I worked hard to get here, and deserved to get this offer.  Even if I AM eating lunch alone in a bathroom stall for a few weeks.

That being said…….unemployment, you will be missed.  I am thankful for the “me time” so I could get my life together, recharge my batteries, and reap the benefits of a paycheck from Uncle Sam.  But, alas, it was time to get back out there.

I can now rejoin the rest of society complaining about Mondays, awful commutes, and stressful work deadlines!  I’m sure being back out there in the world will give me plenty of new ‘writing material.’

Speaking of, I’ve really enjoyed writing these posts and hope that whoever stumbles on here does, too.  I promise I will try to keep it up even though I’m going to find myself with less free time very soon.

Wish me luck at the new job — and please remember that if you’re ever in my shoes…if you’re patient enough and positive enough — good things WILL come your way.

And yes, I realize this post is not funny AT ALL.