The Long Ten Minute Trip

Dear Readers,

Have you ever had one of those moments where you completely underestimate how long a particular action is going to take?  That was my issue yesterday.

After my daughter got home from school, and ate her meal, we were off to go and buy some sriracha.  I estimated that this trip was going to take no more than 10 minutes.

The ride there was quick, finding the sauce was easy, but the way back home was irritating.  I'm assuming there was an accident, because police were blocking off the street and redirecting us.  As hard as I tried to see the results of what I thought was a collision, I didn't see any car debris.  The road seemed clear enough to drive from my vantage point, but we were still being redirected.

Once we took our slight detour, my sense of time was once again assaulted by the lack of driving of the person three cars ahead of me.  We would sit at green lights as the person continued to hold up traffic.

Because my daughter has a (bad) habit of repeating everything I say and I do, I decided to just enjoy the scenery while mentally giving this fraud driver the most epic, expletive-filled, tongue lashing I could.  About twenty-five minutes later we were pulling back into the driveway, and I felt irritated that my short trip took longer than it should.

That's the problem with time, our estimations of it, and how we feel when we don't master something during a certain expectation.

Growing up, time was always really important because I grew up in a somewhat big family.  My parents had four girls, our aunt moved in with us, and for about seven years we all shared one bathroom.  So time seemed like it was constantly of the essence, and if you wasted any of it, people weren't shy about letting you know it.

But on top of that, since we know that our time on this Earth is so short, there can sometimes be the growing pressure to want to hit certain milestones and conquer certain life plans at a certain age.  If you miss that time, there's a sense of failure that might haunt you, which is something that I'll be honest that I struggle with.

For years you couldn't have told me that I wouldn't be living my life's plan by the time I was in my early twenties.  I felt like I came from a pretty good family, followed a safe course that would lead me to where I wanted to go.  But, I'm not there yet.

As happy as I am for my friends, it can sometimes take extra effort to not compare myself to them as they have wonderful jobs, buy homes, and take wonderful vacations, while I sometimes feel like I'm on the longest journey to get hot sauce.

But like yesterday, I have to remind myself sometimes that though I can't see what could be stopping me, or understand why things are going as slow as they are, if you do keep on moving, you will eventually make it to your target destination.  Yes, it would be nice to get there quicker, but at the end of the day, if you make it home with your sriracha, you met your goal.


Stay Encouraged