About this mug: This is the most expensive mug I own. I even got it at a discount and I still paid more for it than I have for any other mug I own. It commemorates Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th year on the throne. I bought it because I am a huge Anglophile and I adore Taste of Britain, the store where I bought it. I pre-ordered it in June and it was supposed to arrive in September. It didn’t arrive until December. A lot of waiting for one little expensive mug but I'm really glad it's finally here.
As this new year has begun, I've spent a little time thinking about the last couple of years. Mainly, I have to think about 2020 and 2021 together as I can't seem to remember where the two separate. I'm constantly getting events confused. The two years seem to have become one extremely long year due to the pandemic.
The last two years seem to have been all about waiting for something. Waiting for lockdown to end, waiting for a vaccine, waiting for Covid to go away. In the immortal words of John Mayer, "We keep waiting, waiting on the world to change."
The waiting only seems to have gotten worse, too. Now we're waiting longer for our purchases to come in, waiting for the new variant to hit, waiting in line for Covid tests. We still seem to be waiting for the end of the pandemic. There seems to be so much beyond the common person's control that all there is to do is wait.
The question I have for myself as I think about all this dang waiting is: "Is the wait worth it?" I waited for this expensive mug to come in. When it didn't come in, I patiently waited some more and it finally arrived. I was so excited and now I have this beautiful (albeit fragile) mug. I considered that wait worth it because I knew what was on the other end.
I don't have any idea what the world is going to look like when we finally declare the pandemic over. However, I'm sick of waiting for something to be different. I may not be able to control the next variant or the supply chain, but there are things I can do to make things different. I want to make this waiting worth it.
There have been plenty of examples from my friends who have taken this time to do something new. Some have built things, some have written books or poems, some have tried new hobbies and some have started new businesses. I haven't really done anything new. I've just continued doing the same thing over and over. But I don't want to look back at this time and think I waited for nothing, that I've sat still and waited for the world to change around me, only to be the exact same person I was before in a world that has become different.
In all this waiting, there is still change and forward movement. Already, the world is a different place than it was in February 2020. I want this time to have been worth the wait for me. So, I'm going to find something to do. Maybe I'll write the novel I've dreamed of for decades now. Or maybe I'll work on better habits. No matter what it is, my goal is to come out on the other side having done something worth waiting for.
