When I was preparing for an academic admission application, there were many things I needed to prepare and provide. While some only required hours to fulfill, others needed days. And if I hadn’t anticipated surprises, I might have missed the deadline altogether because some items took about four months to finish, specifically the ones that depended on other people’s timelines and not mine.
Probably the most crucial part of the multi-step preparation process was keeping myself sane during the waiting, especially when all I could do about the things I couldn’t control was to follow up and then wait. Follow up again. Then wait more.
The silence kept my mind churning for alternatives, making it feel as if the only way to quell the noise in my head was to do something, anything. It felt like I was wired for impatience because, at the time, the waiting felt like a punishment.
Then again, from all my accumulated experience, I have learned how early preparation becomes an antidote to impatience.
jessa 