Waiting.

Ugh. Even the word reminds me. If you are anything like me, you hate waiting. I am impatient like the sun is "a slightly warm temperature." (I am, a lot.)

I hate waiting for the bus. I hate waiting for my food. (Hello, waiter bringing me my food-you will never know how much I long to see your face each time.) I hate waiting for new seasons of shows I watch to come out on Netflix. I hate waiting for these things that I know are just inconveniences.

However, in college, you begin waiting for IMPORTANT things. Suddenly, almost inexplicably waiting becomes unbearable. This can happen a LOT. Sometimes you have to wait for a significant other to fall in love with-or you have to wait for them to fall in love with you back. Or the worst-waiting until you can get over the one you still love. Sometimes you have to wait to figure out your major. You change your major. You change your major a second time. You end up changing your mind. A lot. (Don't worry- as stressful as that seems, you will get a job even if you change your major four times). It's possible you have to wait to find authentic friendships. Or a job. Or just balancing the nauseating tilt-a-whirl of a life you are riding right now. You could be waiting to feel incredibly passionate about something. Or waiting to get that proposal. That promotion. That academic achievement you work your butt (and that coffee buzz) off for. Or you could have just missed the bus and now have to wait that extra thirty minutes. My personal favorite is when you are waiting for what feels like every dang thing in the universe all at once.

In college, it can be very easy to feel like you're waiting and waiting and not getting anywhere. Your classmates-what? oh? Rachel just had a baby with the love of her life? Sarah's in D.C. working on an internship with a company that she loves and is somehow inexplicably getting paid? And you-yeah, you. You're in the campus coffee shop, chugging down a double-shot-of-course-I-want-whip-cream-doesn't-matter-theres-coffee because you stayed up all night studying for an exam in a class that is for a major you're hoping that you will use after you leave your university. Woohoo.

It can be incredibly hard to feel like your life isn't as "together" or "accomplished" or enough as everyone else's appears to be through how they tell you and display it on social media. Everyone loves to share their highlights-you do it too-but you can't help binge eating Cheetos and popping in that Grey's Anatomy rerun when you see your fear come to life-you have to wait while all your friends aren't having to. They can have everything fall in place now.

Let's take a breath together. Inhale. Exhale. Okay. Let's do this.

Yeah, life can kick your butt sometimes and yeah, occasionally you will feel like you have been waiting forever for your moment but your moment has come, and it will come again, and again. Your moment is every single day. Waiting is hard. We get to choose what to do with it. We may always be waiting for something. When we have our x, y, z success we crave, we will want fulfillment in that success. Or more vacation days. Or heck, before we got to college, we couldn't wait to get out of that drama-filled high school.

We always will be waiting for something. In moments, you will be able to choose joy and make the best of it. Good for you. In others, it will feel like literally-the-worst-thing-to-have-ever-happened-to-me-in-the-history-of-ever. Be patient with yourself.

You are going to accomplish the things you need to at the proper time.

You meet the people you do to grow into the person you are now.

You will continue to grow in ways you can't even picture yet.

You will loathe having to wait for these things.

But.

You will have a *great* time playing in the waiting room.