Impatience Ain’t A Virtue.
Sincerely, Someone Who Cares
by Guest Blogger Amanda Bauer
“Take your time”…used to be one of my lesser favorite phrases. I am not someone who has necessarily been good at taking her time…with anything. I blow ahead, charging forth, allowing myself to get utterly overwhelmed with too much all at once and then have a full on raging meltdown five seconds later. I’ve always taken myself to be more of an “all or nothing” person, but I have to say, it used to be a lot more extreme than it needed to be.
Me now? It’s a semi-completely different story. I find comfort and happiness in everything I used to hate-organization, solitude, and more importantly-patience. There was a moment a few years ago when I was having a “heart to heart” with my grandma on the phone and she may not know it, but she said something that has stuck with me ever since, “Everything will happen when it’s supposed to and it will be great.” I think she’s right. Personally, I am someone who believes that things happen for a reason-mainly because my life up until this point has seemed to work out that way. There have been some very valuable life lessons that I’ve learned as of late and I haven’t yet had a big moment where I understood the significance of their timing, but I know that that moment will come.
One of these big lessons was not rushing. Take relationships for example, I always used to throw in my crazy “full steam ahead” attitude right from the get go and do you know what happened? Before I knew it I was in some serious relationship with some random guy I hadn’t taken the time to fully get to know and saddest of all- I lost myself somewhere along the way. Then, it all ended and I was back at square one re-finding myself, re-learning, re-trying to make myself happy again. Do you know how long that process takes to get back on track?! A LONG time, and my impatient self just can’t seem to be okay with that. So, one day I decided that nobody was worth that process for me, because if they truly were-that wouldn’t be the case. Sure, things happen for a reason and we all learn lessons from relationships (good and bad) but one thing remains-nobody ever is, nor ever will be worth losing yourself for.
I’m not (usually) one to offer unsolicited advice, but I think that this is something we all need to learn if we haven’t yet: Take your time. Stop and smell the roses and the duckies and anything else that looks pretty (or shiny.) Don’t assume, don’t write people off, get to know them in their own time and allow them to get to know you in yours. You have instincts for a reason…trust and acknowledge them. If they take off before you’re able to get to know each other, then it truly wasn’t meant to be, and they are simply not worth it.
When I look at the people in my life I smile because they’re pretty rad. However, this place that I’ve come to with them has taken time. We’ve had to get to know each other and evolve together as people. We didn’t spend every waking moment together (and still don’t,) we didn’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole-it just was, and it fit, so it happened. The time that we do spend together is great because it is quality, not quantity time. As a result, I have a lot of confidence in patience because for me, it’s been worth it.
