To each of us, at birth, God gave a certain number of minutes that we will spend in this world.
Someone got only a few million, someone 20, someone 30, and someone will live to a very old age with their 50 million...
From the 25 million I have lived so far, I have concluded one thing.
I don't like to waste them.
It's OK to spend them on some of my craziness and for what I decided on my own and what I like to do and what fulfills me (no matter how abnormal it may be for someone), but I don't like it when someone else spends even a little of those minutes on me, with their behavior and an easy attitude towards time (someone who is normally late).
For this reason (I would be a hypocrite if it were otherwise) I am very considerate of other people's time.
That's why I'm never late.
I'm not the type of person who does everything at "A minute to 12".
I like to leave myself a little more time for everything in life, because you never know what unexpected situations you may encounter. I guess that's why I'm never late...
When I have an appointment, when I can expect to be late due to traffic jams, I act like a mao nerd.
I know how to organize myself and leave much earlier, even if it cost me waiting for that someone to show up at the agreed time.
At that moment, I have no idea what I'm going to do.
Then I counted on that waiting and I got ready, took my Kindle and I will read some part of the book I am reading, I will check my emails, I will look at Hive, I will play a game - i.e. I will do everything I would do at home, then I set off to reach the agreed upon place.
Then imagine my displeasure when that someone is late.
With a "sorry I'm late", he lowers his prized bottom onto the chair of the restaurant or cafe we're in and orders his drink.
What do you think, do I pretend like nothing happened, like I didn't wait longer than I should have?
Yes, sometimes my comment may be a bit sharper, but I make it clear to the person I met with that I don't want to be late next time, if we even agree to see each other next time 🤣
Lucky for me, my partner is the same in relation to time.
We are so precise and accurate that sometimes we fit in 10 minutes.
Her preparation before going out takes 15 minutes, never turns into 1 hour. Her wardrobe shopping, never from 3 a.m., does not take the whole day... and that is why she is my support for setting standards in respect of time (mine, hers, ours and time in agreements with others).
The situation from the other day with my uncle's sister, who is also her good friend...
We planned to watch the animated film: "Inside out 2" together in the cinema.
If you haven't seen this movie, I recommend both parts, it's not for children at all...
We have been making arrangements for several weekends, but due to commitments, we have not been able to fit in.
And then an agreement was reached: we will go on Saturday (if she does not inform us that she is prevented until the end of the working week, Friday evening).
Since she didn't tell us at the end of the day on Friday that she couldn't make it, we booked cinema tickets and called her on Saturday morning to agree on a departure time.
And then, a cold shower: "Oh, sorry, I still can't"...
As if her no-show didn't affect our weekend plans... We canceled dinner with friends because of it...
I'm pissed off.
I wrote her a message: "It's not a problem at all that you can't, you just should have called when we agreed, by Friday evening, so that we wouldn't waste our time and day... you must have known before, and not just now when we did you invite me?".
"Well, I did, honestly, I knew on Friday, but I forgot to call, sorry, sorry a hundred times...".
Ugh, I'm burnt out...
"You are not young to know that you should respect other people's time," I wrote to her, "if you demand and are pleased that someone else respects yours."
We did not cancel the ticket reservation, the two of us watched the movie at the scheduled time and on the reserved date.
I don't know if we will watch the movie with her, maybe if she calls and suggests when, if we are willing then...
If we have 240 minutes to hang out and watch the same movie again, which, you'll admit, would be a waste of time...
All things considered, it turns out that there are the fewest arguments when people with the same understanding of time come together.
There are some who look at time in days and count the hours as with a sundial, and some, like me, who count time in minutes, those that are given to us in millions 🙂
Today, @galenkp and I exchanged several comments regarding the calculation of time by the position of the sun, and since I am not a person who calculates time that way, I decided to write a post on the topic:
Are you usually late or early? What does punctuality mean to you and how do you feel people perceive it and respond to it?