Right here waiting

I should feel proud of myself: after a month, I’ve finally starting flipping through our WSJ :)

And today, I came across an article, “Sick of This Text: 'Sorry I'm Late'”. This really struck a chord with me.

It’s not that I’m always on time and waiting for others, or – worse – that I’m always late! Actually, I’ve been on both sides..

I think up until maybe four years ago, I was mostly on time. But for some reason, my closest friends were mostly late! I spent many anguished minutes of my youth waiting along the road, at a restaurant, at the station, etc.

For example, I was planning to leave the office to meet two friends* for dinner one fine day in 2008** but learnt that a paper MUST go up that evening! So I stayed back quite a bit to finish it.. At least my demanding boss gave me a lift to make up for some lost time.. And the incredible part was, I actually turned up earlier *.* I guess punctuality is always relative?

* Don’t want to shoot anyone here! :p
** I still remember the year cos I still remember what exactly I had to work on!

Then, I started to be late as well, for two reasons. One, I refused to wait anymore so I would start to get ready later and plan to be late! Two, last-minute work, urgent or otherwise, as illustrated above. I would tell Mother to hold the nag until I come back; I would stop surfing net to get out of the house; I would take a cab to make an appointment; I even have alarms to remind myself to prepare to go out! But I could not say no to work. I know, it sucks!

Maybe that’s one more reason for not wanting to work like I did – I can’t just drop my work and go even though I really don’t like to be late. I don’t know about others but I feel bad when I make people wait; alerts via phone calls and text messages just don’t make up for anything at all. And, I don’t like to feel bad. Makes sense?