SO I TURNED 21 — PART 1
I have always been proud of my age!
That sentence might sound unusual to people who do not know my story, but to those who do, well, you now understand my reactions, don’t you?
I skipped 2 grades when I was 8 and ever since then I have only had friends and classmates who are 2 years or more older than me. Somehow that always felt like a little advantage in life, that I’ll be done early, that I’ll reach whatever I need to reach earlier than everyone else. At first it was a gift, then an advantage then it became an obssession.
My father once said I was lazy because I would always find the fastest way to do just about anything. He wasn’t wrong, but it was not laziness he was identifying it was … Stress?
I am not sure how to call it, but I know that I’ve spent my first 20 years, in a Hurry!
A hurry to finish, a hurry to win, a hurry to lose, a hurry to move on and in a hurry to .. Everything.
Last summer I ended up in a situation where I knew that I would spend the next year of my life in waiting. That not much progress would come of it but that It was necessary to stay put. I spent my 21st year stuck. And that, was a very very good and tough lesson in Patience.
Patience is a word I never understood, Patience is a word I didn’t think I’dd have to use, and yet, last year, life taught me that patience, like many other wise habits, is a necessary ingerdiant for any worthy success.
Last year, I had to give up a dream for a priority. I had to stay put to be there for my family and I had to swallow more pain and stress and anxiety than I had ever felt. How would one person stand tall in face of so much when they’re too young to be sure of anything? Well, my answer came in the long coffee conversations with my mother.
She would ask me to wait, she would ask me to fake. She would ask me to be patient. And though over time my reactions to her advice changed, I can say that today, more than Ever, I trust my mother’s advice completly.
When the result isn’t what you aimed for, and there’s nothing you can do about it, Have patience. Learn patience.
