Waiting In Lines
Living in New York City required patience. I waited in endless lines, often for multiple hours. At the grocery store, at the post office, at restaurants—if you wanted something that other people wanted, chances are you’d have to wait in line. The two years I lived there beefed up my patience for good, and for that, I am grateful. Unfortunately, the type of patient line waiter that I somehow became is a rare breed.
On Friday, I waited in a 2 hour line for a new iPhone 3GS. I usually avoid release-day-lines, as experience has told me that waiting a day can save hours, but this time I didn’t. Upon arriving, an Apple store employee informed me that it would be a two, or two and a half hour wait. By the looks of it, I thought that estimate was way off, so I was planning on waiting for a while, seeing how fast the line moved, and bailing if it took too long. But after waiting with the crowd for a while, I became captivated by humanity.
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What I Want To Be When I Grow Up
I’ve been slowly going through some boxes of files I’ve been holding onto for more than a decade. The things my former-self chose to keep are mostly pointless: assignments, notes, tests… from as far back as the seventh-grade. I’m sure I didn’t keep everything, either, but the mound of paperwork I did keep is still overwhelming.
And that’s only in print. My digital collection of files extends back even further (all the way back to 1987, I believe) and in some ways, the digital problem is much worse. Need that conversation we had about CoCo Puffs in 1999? I probably have it, somewhere.
Before you start calling me a pathetic packrat, allow me to say that I am aware of the problem, and have identified it even further—”sentimental pack rat” is the term, I believe. The hardest part of resolving this issue is behind me–admitting that I have a problem. Now comes the hard work of eliminating the trail of my past that I’ve kept in two or three bankers boxes for most of my life.
While most of the things I’ve kept are completely useless and shouldn’t have been kept in the first place, there are a few gems.
Here’s one of them, from 8th grade: Read the full post
