You know the old proverb, “Patience is a virtue.” Well I must be as virtuous as the day is long.
I’ve been told my entire life to hurry up and wait and now is my time to shine. I’ve actually been waiting for this moment, believe it or not.
This is the moment when I get to tell you about how good I am at waiting. Seriously…. Wait for it.
It all started back in the 80s. My father was a Naval aviator and was basically gone a lot. So my earliest memories of waiting were waiting for my dad to come home from work.
At one point in time, my father was stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and I actually lived there for a few years as a child.
Wait, what? Yeah, it’s true.
Being confined to the bay was a trip as a child.
There was a ferry that could take people from one side of the bay to the other and often times we spent waiting for that boat in our car, “The Brown Death.”
With my parents enjoying the amenities of living on a tropical island, they took up scuba diving.
My parents used to take me and my brother to the beach and my folks would just put on all their scuba gear and walk out into the water and go diving.
Then my brother and I would just sit around and wait on the beach.
One thing I remember doing to pass the time was chasing iguanas. These weren’t some little dudes, either. I’m talking huge iguanas.
My dad eventually got stationed in Meridian and we moved to Mississippi. During a few years of elementary school, my brother and I attended a private school.
Private schools didn’t have a bus so we, along with some other kids in the neighborhood, would carpool.
Many mornings were spent waiting for so-and-so’s mom to come pick us up in a station wagon.
I always had to sit in the seat that looks out the back window.
After school programs and daycare were popular alternatives and I remember there being a good number of places that would pick up kids from school and take them somewhere else to wait on their parents to get off work.
My mom found out about one facility that was located in North Meridian that my brother and I could attend.
It was called Pat Gray.
This place was mainly a dance and gymnastics facility but they also offered a place for kids to hang out after school.
My brother and I told my mom how boring it was waiting there.
The after-school kids were only allowed so much time to play in the gym before being shooed off to a windowless room downstairs.
So my mom decided to make us take gymnastics classes so we could have more time in the gym.
In case you’re wondering, that’s why I’m so flexible today.
Another portion of my childhood was spent waiting in hair salons.
My mom would always be “getting her hair did.”
And I’m talking the full nine with color and foil and waiting under a hairdryer bubble with curlers and all that stuff.
My brother and I would sit around and wait, perusing the same old hairstyle magazines, and doing our homework.
To this day, I can smell the hairspray and mousse just thinking about this particular time in my life.
Flash forward to just a few years ago. At this point, I’m basically 27 years old and still waiting for something.
I had taken a lot of time off from school and was just waiting for the right moment to go back.
I had gone from waiting tables to working in a law office. My job at the law office really honed my waiting skills.
In fact, that was pretty much the entire job – waiting for the boss to give me instructions.
As the years rolled by at the law office, I eventually became my boss’ daytime chauffer. My mantra became “hurry up and wait.” Take your boss to court… hurry up and wait. Take your boss here… hurry up and wait.
(Note to self: I’m pretty sure I just wrote a new rap song).
I’m still waiting for my rap career to take off, by the way.
As we all sit here and wait for this pandemic to end so we can go back to normalcy, I can’t help but think about all that time spent waiting and how I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life.
So, what are you waiting for?
Massengale is a modern-day renaissance man (in waiting). In his current position at The PineBelt NEWS he helps manage the newspaper’s social media presence and keeps the website up-to-date at HubCitySPOKES.com
