Why Wait?
For the sake of posting, haha.
Originally delivered at the 2009 Search for the Philippine Representative to the English Speaking Union (ESU) International Public Speaking Contest (IPSC) in London
School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman
14 March 2009
I’m a journalism major, and one of my assignments recently involved police reporting. I was at the Kamuning Police Station the other day to cover a crime story, and spent two long, listless hours at the precinct, not writing, not interviewing, but rather, you guessed it, waiting for the police report. What pained me was not the nitty-gritty of commuting, or being within two feet of jailed lawbreakers and what have you: it was the fact I was made to wait. For two hours at that.
Waiting is no fun at all. Waiting is not, and will never be, pleasant. Talk about waiting for a train in the LRT station, or waiting for summer vacation to come. Clearly, no one wants to wait.
Society today has this rather negative notion of waiting. Waiting is bad. Everything must be done in a moment’s notice. If you have to actually wait before something gets done, you’re probably unable and unfit to inhabit our enlightened world, and worse, you’re made to feel bad for it. In more ways than one this has become an instant world, and you either cope with it, or suffer the consequences.
But allow me to shatter this view, so to speak, by saying that to wait is to live, to make the most of life. I may sound like a traitor to my upwardly-mobile and highly-motivated generation here, but I do find value in waiting. I’d like to share with you that on two distinct levels; I believe that it could do us well to learn to wait.
Firstly, waiting makes one a trusting person. In today’s paradigm, there is hardly any room for trust-life and its various complications have made sure of that. But when we wait, we are able to examine and take a closer glimpse at our choices. We can then ask ourselves, “Can I really stand up for my decisions? Can I wait for the right time before I make them?” If we wait, we can be more sure and more confident of ourselves to answer these critical questions. Life seems to be whizzing by so fast, not stopping for anything or anyone for that matter. Given our cynical world, it may be hard to trust, both ourselves and others, but if we wait, it really will be a lot less difficult.
Secondly, waiting demolishes society’s “now-attitude.” As the name implies, the “now-attitude” is the manifestation of our obsession with the now. Turn on your television or your computer, and you will see all sorts of messages preaching this idea. Succeed now. Be happy now. Make it now. This attitude has cultivated no less than a culture of rush and impatience that has simply crippled our ability to live life to the full. Reality is, haste and immediacy can never compensate for the “quality” of life that is sacrificed. Sure, we’re living the good life now, but how much better a life could it be if we just waited? A lot better, a lot richer, I suppose. A renewed and regenerated life could be at our disposal.
So if you still ask me, yes, I’ll still wait. I’ll wait for my Dad to give me the keys to his car, as I've been pestering him with since I could remember. I’ll wait for that call center agent who put me on hold, whether for pizza or the Internet connection. I’ll still wait to meet that special someone in my life. Who knows? That person might be just waiting as well.
As they say, the best is yet to come. But, how would we know that? Well, I guess we just have to wait.