The Waiting (Is The Hardest Part)

Introduction

This is for this challenge which you are welcome to enter here

I am not sure which community this will drop into. We have Micro Fiction in Vocal but no Micro Truth and this is going to contain a lot of non-fiction items so it won't be in Fiction.

Part of it is inspired by the title of the Tom Petty song "The Waiting" from the album "Hard Promises".

The waiting is the hardest part

Every day you see one more card

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

The waiting is the hardest part

And So A List Of Things I Have Waited For Throughout My Life

I can't really remember the first thing that I ever waited for. Maybe it was Santa bringing presents at Christmas, or more likely waiting for the bell to ring at the end of the school day and then again waiting for my bus home.

We do start waiting very early on in our lives. As babies, we wait to be fed and changed by our parents or carers.

Then there are so many things we wait for. Before today's on-demand entertainment, we had to wait for our favourite programs to come on television. In the sixties, I had two channels, by the end of the seventies, I had five but I had to wait for my favourite programs to be broadcast before I could see them.

By the eighties we had recorders, but the nearest thing to on-demand was a VHS box set.

As I got older there were more things I had to wait for.

I started work, and at first, was paid by cheque which I had to pay into my bank physically and then wait three days for it to clear. Things got better with my next job because they paid directly into my bank.

In the seventies, I had to wait three days for a cheque to clear but am amazed how sometimes digital transfers can take up to two weeks to clear while others are instant.

I can buy things instantly with PayPal but if I try and deposit money from my bank to PayPal it takes up to ten days, yet moving money from PayPal to my bank is instant. Still can't work that out at all.

When we pay a bill, the money is taken from us instantly, but if we are due a refund that often takes a week or more.

I remember when applying for my mortgage was told they had made a mistake and it would be another thirty days to process it. I spoke to that person's manager and the manager told me:

"all they have to do is move a form to the next desk, it will be done immediately"

and it was.

Every day we wait for things, we wait for the alarm to go off. When we are in the shower we wait for the water to get hot.

In the kitchen, we ait for the kettle to boil so we can brew a pot of tea or make a cup of coffee.

We wait for the postman to come.

I work from home so wait for my computer to start up so that I can start work, and often find myself waiting for Excel, Access or SQL to process the half million accounting records that I have to analyze and people are waiting on me to give them their results.

And I Am Still Waiting

For so many things and no doubt you have been waiting for me to finish up on this piece, but if you got this far, thank you so much for reading.