An Exercise in Patience

Ever since I completed a major project in early February, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the results. The nature of this project means that even though it was completed towards the beginning of the semester, the results aren’t known until the end of the semester. Obviously, this is incredibly frustrating for an impatient person like myself, and I’ve been doing my best to not think about it all semester. I’ve been doing pretty well, but now that it’s down to the wire, I am finding it harder and harder not to think about it.

It’s strange, because even though I know I can’t do anything about it now, I feel more anxious over the project than I did before I handed it in. Before the deadline I could tweak the project if necessary, but now there’s absolutely nothing I can do except wait. I’ve been doing pretty good with the waiting, but as each day gets closer and closer to the possibility of finding out about the results I find myself fretting over it more and more. The fact that there is no set date as to when the results are announced makes it difficult to wait, too. In theory, I could be finding out about it any day now, which is terrifying yet thrilling at the same time.

If nothing else, I am learning how to become patient throughout this process. But my goodness, being patient is hard! The hardest part, I think, is not even the waiting. It’s the not knowing. I am the type of person who has to know everything, and having information withheld from me is pretty much torture. So, this whole experience has definitely been quite the learning curve. Hopefully it all works out in the end…

Question of the Week: What are some ways to keep yourself preoccupied/distracted when you are waiting to find out about something?

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.