Waiting

 

It was early in the morning, some raindrops softly landed on the already wet concrete doorsteps, creating cute little water flowers that no one would care about. But some other raindrops were even more pathetic, joining their companions on the edge of roof, dripping down in a crowd amongst their laughter, not knowing that there would be a hard hit once alighted. There I was, walking out and secretly joking about their stupidity.

Perhaps because the rain had set the tone of the day heavy, people on the street all seemed to have locked their eyebrows, especially those who were waiting for the shuttle to come. Their gaze into the direction in which the shuttle would eventually appear had betrayed them and revealed their impatience. Cars continued crushing those innocent water flowers on the floor while speeding by, then got abruptly put on brake in front of the red light of the crossroad. After that, it was the same impatient look on the drivers’ faces. And the same impatient look might just stay with them the whole day, or their whole lifetime because of the amount of time they would spend wasting.

It is scary how much time people spend on waiting everyday for everything. After people wake up in the morning, they might have to wait for their family to use the bathroom. After they are ready for work, they wait for the right timing to pull their cars onto the main street, and wait for the red lights along their way till they arrive at the parking lot. Then, they wait in line to park their cars and wait to get to their destinations.

After they get into buildings, they wait for elevators, wait for other people to press different buttons for different floors, and wait for people to get on and off. People wait for each other in meetings, in gatherings, and in daily lunch-togethers. People wait to get into cafeterias, wait to pick out their foods, and then wait to pay. People spend a scary amount of time waiting but they never noticed how much time it really would be if the waiting time is aggregated throughout the day, aggregated throughout their lifetime, and how scary the number would be if everyone’s waiting time is added.

If I have the magic to reduce the waiting time for everyone, I might as well get a special Nobel for it…