Every friend group definitely has a "late friend," and that friend is definitely me. Oh yeah, you know who I am. I'm the friend who arrives at the party an hour after it began because they couldn't decide on an outfit ("fashionably late" is a phrase for a reason). I'm the one that gets to class looking disheveled and slightly out of breath. I'm the one who always makes you miss the ten minutes of trailers at the movie theater. Remember me now? In all my years of successfully being the late friend, I've learned a few things that I hope can enrich the minds of my on-time peers.
First, I've realized how awful I am at time management. Like, I should get an award for being so bad at it. Whether or not I plan out what I need to accomplish before an outing, I always find myself in the same situation. I may sleep in or overfill my to-do list for the day, but I'll always find myself either forgetting the time or scrambling to get ready. Even on the days that I have plenty of time to prepare, I'll find a way to over-estimate my ability to get things done. What should be a five-minute shower turns into a 30-minute radio sing-along. Getting dressed becomes a game of "let's clean up the closet." Making a quick snack morphs into planning out a full meal, baked dessert included. In about 99 percent of cases, my lateness is not intentional but rather a product of attempted productivity or of unexpected circumstances (traffic, illness, a new episode up on Netflix.).
Next, I discovered that the world doesn't shatter if I'm late. It's a bizarre idea, I know. If I'm ten minutes late to a party or missed the very beginning of a club meeting nothing truly bad actually happens. Parties are still enjoyable without my presence (shockingly), missing the first two minutes of a movie won't ruin the plot and nobody ever starved when I arrived to dinner a tad past scheduled.
When it comes down to it, why should I stress so much about making it on time when it's likely that the consequences to my tardiness will be minimal and harmless? Why should I worry so much about something this small when at least 30 percent of my delays are caused by uncontrollable circumstances anyway?
That being said, punctuality definitely has its place in the world. It shows that you care about others and value their time, it implies that you know how to be efficient, it reminds people that you are dependable and polite. In certain cases, being late really isn't an option. Some teachers won't let you take tests if you aren't present when class starts, theaters will close their doors to keep you from disrupting audience members and potential bosses may not even consider you for the job. I've learned that while being timely isn't the most important thing, it should be practiced as often as possible. It encourages you to manage yourself wisely, and, if anything, it'll keep complaints from friends and family to a sugar-sweet minimum.
