Hi Neighbor!
I stand in line several times a day, many times a week, all year long. I stand in line ad nauseum everywhere I go, and so do you, because we have no choice. We wait for the person in front of us at the convenience store to pay for his coffee, we shift from leg to leg in the grocery store as the person ahead of us painstakingly bags her food, and we rock back and forth impatiently as the couple in front of us in the airport security line fumbles with their boarding pass/ID/wallet/you-name-it.
An eye roll behind the back might make us feel better but it does nothing to make the line go faster.
All of this takes patience. Actually, a practice in patience. We are an impatient society always in a hurry to get to the next place – the car, home, another errand. Doesn’t matter. We want to get there. Pronto.
For me, however, the real issue becomes not the waiting (I’ve practiced that patience, people!) but being the person waited “for.” It’s the next-in-line guy behind me who I am constantly cognizant of – I feel rushed, heavy breathing on my neck as he closes in on my space. I grapple with my wallet, try to be quick on the trigger of the key pad or counting out change, depending on my method of payment. All the while, I feel as if I am inconveniencing them, taking too long to grab my coffee and breakfast burrito plus napkins before they nudge me out of the spot.
But this is on me, my mini-phobia, not wanting to take up too much space, be too much of an inconvenience, or hold people up in any line behind me. I aim to be considerate and polite, so when the person in front of me has a lack of self-awareness by being too chatty with the check-out person while the line grows behind him, I am flummoxed. I begin to, um, lose my patience.
Do I sigh deeply so they know I am standing there waiting? Do I gently bump into him and apologize? Do I make eye contact with the person behind the counter to signal “let’s go?” What happened to social awareness? Cues?
What I have recognized, though, while I eternally stand in line is that everyone is actually much kinder and gentler with one another. After all, we are neighbors. I find comfort in that while waiting my turn.
Forever in queue,
Jackie
