Instead of waiting for life, make it happen

We spend most of our lives waiting, waiting for a baby to be born, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the right person, waiting for the right time to tell someone you love them or the right time to tell someone you don't want to be with them, waiting for the right job, the right opportunity, waiting in line at your favorite club, waiting for the person you love to finally realize what they have before it's too late, not when it's already too late, waiting for someone to change, waiting for someone to open their eyes after a major surgery…

We spend most of our lives waiting for things to happen, and in the meantime, life happens so fast that while you're waiting, you miss out on the important things. So, why are we always waiting?

I have never been one to wait around for anything. In fact, I hate waiting. I hate waiting by the phone, waiting for someone to call me, whether the call is from a friend or a boyfriend. But lately, all I seem to do is wait.

I wait for my on-again-off-again boyfriend to call and say, "Hey, you want to go out?" But unfortunately, that doesn't happen because I don't like to wait. If he doesn't call within my time frame, I call him and if he doesn't answer, I get mad and then wait for him to call back. In the meantime, I try and make other plans.

He, on the other hand, is the opposite. All he does is wait. He waits for his friends to call and if they don't, he stays home--no problem. He waits for things to happen, for life to happen. I like to make things happen, but lately I'm stuck waiting with him, waiting for him, waiting for change.

In the meantime, what do I do?

This is my last year as a graduate student, and now I'm waiting to graduate. I'm waiting to develop the skills I need to get the job I want in editing.

I saw a job in the newspaper for an editorial assistant at the Pioneer Press. It sounded like the perfect job, but I don't have the necessary skills to apply for it. I don't know all there is to know about editing, since I just started working at the Torch, nor do I know much about design and the design programs they use, such as Quark and InDesign.

So, I wait. I wait to develop the skills I need and hope the right job will come along when I graduate.

Last year, my grandmother had open-heart surgery. I remember how fragile she looked in the hospital bed afterwards. She was hooked up to all these machines, her eyes were closed, her face was sunken in, her body looked small and she looked helpless.

When they tried to wake her from the anesthesia, she jerked her legs and shook her head from side to side. She wouldn't wake up and I watched her, waiting, waiting for her to wake up.

I was waiting and waiting and finally, she woke up.

So the question remains: What are we waiting for?

Life. We wait for that phone call but in the meantime, we go out hoping he or she calls and if not, have fun anyway.

We wait for the right job but in the meantime, we learn and do our best to perfect our skills.

We wait for our grandmothers or loved ones to open their eyes, but in the meantime we remember the good times and do what we can to support our family and our friends.

While we wait for all these things to happen, we miss out on the other things happening right now. So instead of waiting, make life happen.