Skip to main content

What You Do With A Few Extra Minutes Matters

Yesterday I was running late for work. Not really late, but behind my normal schedule and I hate that. I've always been someone who's early to things, even when it meant having to wake up earlier despite me being the opposite of a morning person. My high school started classes at 8 a.m., and there were only a handful of times in those four years when I got there any time after 7:30. I liked getting there early enough to read a chapter or two of my book and ease into the morning before 2,300 other kids showed up- and high school has been over for a long time, but I'm still that way.

If I start work at 8, I'm up at 6 and you'll see me on the road by 7:10. I love feeling ahead. I love having enough time to look around, craft a playlist for the drive, pick up a coffee, and maybe pick up some groceries before anyone else is awake enough to be forming lines at checkout counters. However many of those extra minutes I get are important to me. That's all I'm getting at. And as I'm getting busier/deeper into adult life, I'm learning that what I do with those extra minutes really matters.

"A few extra minutes" seemed to be the theme of my day yesterday. My grandparents asked me to call them when I could and because I was already running behind, I told them the soonest I'd be able to would be probably be after I finished my shift. But I managed to make it into the store parking lot 10 minutes before the open sign would turn on, so I used those few extra minutes to make that call.

In those few minutes, we confirmed dates for me to fly out to visit them for the first time in years. Which is amazing because this is a busy, busy year... for everyone. And coordinating work/school/travel/other commitment schedules is HARD. But another thing I'm learning is that sometimes, you just have to make things happen. That'll be a huge focus for me all of 2020. It already has been.

I've already booked one flight and put in for a whole week free from work. I've already impulsively purchased concert tickets to see one of my favorite artists perform in my city (even though I probably should've saved that money) because I want this to be the year I really allow myself to have experiences that will feed my soul. I've already reserved seats for Alex and I when one of our favorite comedians brings his tour to Wichita for the same reason. Experiences are better than stuff. Stories to tell are better than clutter around the house. A lot of my best memories and a lot of my best stories have resulted from decisions like these, that I made in the few extra minutes I carved out of my normal routine.

Deviating from the norm is good. Challenging your comfort zone is good. Note to self: do more of it. Do more of it, do more of it, do more of it. 


I stayed a few extra minutes after we closed the shop that day so I could give my coworker a ride home, because I'd rather spend a few of my minutes helping my people than have my people have to spend a few minutes of theirs in an Uber with a stranger making awkward small talk and having to pay for it. I try to put humanity first, always. Before pride. Before profit. Before personal interest. Before anything that doesn't provide a way for me to make the world around me better.

And I think the world might be watching.

Later that night at dinner, Alex opened a fortune cookie that read, "Your dearest wish will come true."
Which, for the purposes of this post, I photographed and claimed as my own because the one I actually opened told me to eat more Kung Pao chicken... how was I supposed to use that? 

I'm gonna let that go though, because this one still really got me thinking. 
What even IS my dearest wish?

I really don't know. Maybe to produce more work that I'm satisfied with. Maybe to spend a lot more time with the people who mean everything to me. Maybe to experience more and spend less time in my own head. Maybe to just put humanity first and see how far that gets me. Or maybe my dearest wish is just to slow down, take things less seriously and make the most out of my few extra minutes. 

Either way, so far, things seem pretty promising. 
xox












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ohana Means Family.

I have about a million things to do, so this seems like the best time to finally sit down and blog again. The important things are done -- my income taxes, the housework, the med management. The dogs are calm, the dishes are clean, and the windows are open for some much needed serotonin.  The truth is, it's been a long time since I've had the motivation (and the time, and most importantly the energy), to write. I'm still adjusting to working 40+ hours a week in a very people-y career field after I spent 8 months being told by doctors that it probably wasn't going to be possible for a very long time.  In 2022 when it was discovered I would need a liver transplant, my whole world came to a very sudden stop. Then in early 2023, when I was still very sick but doctors determined a liver transplant wasn't even going to be a safe option for treatment, my mental health hit rock bottom. I had never experienced fear, and anxiety, and depression to that extreme a degree. I had...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Resilient Tattoo

It was 2 a.m. and I was ten hours deep into cramming for the college algebra final I'd be taking first thing the next morning. I was sitting with one of my best friends, the boy I met my sophomore year of high school who helped me survive math classes from that year forward. "I have a 70% in this class," I told him. "There's no way I'm going to be able to do well enough on the final to even pass." "I think you'd be surprised," he told me, half talking me down and half working on what I assumed was his own homework. Two minutes later, he showed me what he'd been working on. "I calculated what you need to get to raise your grade enough to pass this class, and you need an 81," he told me. "You can do that. I've never known you to give up. You're too resilient ." Those words have been stuck in my head forever. It was freezing cold in the corner of his dorm room, the clock read 2:39 a.m., and still nothing...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reasons To Stay (As Told By Someone Who Didn't Want To)

In October of 2022, my boyfriend called my parents to come and pick me up after one of the worst nights of my life. I was white-knuckling severe depression and manic episodes. I was always anxious and on edge, even when I felt my safest. My physical health had worsened and doctors had no idea how to help me. The unknown, quite literally, was killing me. I was always feeling alllll the things. Fear, sadness, excitement, uncertainty, doubt, insecurity, small portions of joy at a time, paranoia, you name it. I was sleeping, at best, 4 hours a night.  It did get to a point where I felt suicidal, and my mother and step-dad rushed over to take me to the ER in Psychiatrics to get me on meds. I spent 20 minutes fighting tears, answering questions, admitting defeat. The nurse gave me a 50 milligram anti-anxiety pill and it helped. It helped me. It didn't heal me. I feel the need to emphasize the importance of the difference between those two things because if you expect a pill to heal the i...
Post a Comment
Read more