Learning to Wait

I've gotten lots of little nudges lately that are reminding me that I need to learn to wait. The other day I was watching The Wendy Williams Show (no, us teachers didn't have another day off; I had DVR'ed it) and when she came out onto the stage she seemed so humbled by the ovation she received from her audience. In another show, A few days later, she mentioned that she's 48 years old!

Today, as I flipped through the seemingly thousands of channels on Fios (we just switched from DirectTV) looking for a cheesy romantic comedy on the Hallmark Channel, I happened across an episode of one of my old favorites - Gilmore Girls. I thought about one of the co-stars, who I only remembered by her character's name, Sookie, and how 10 years after this episode, she's up for an Oscar. In case you're not familiar with Sookie, or the woman who played her - she's the one from the movie Bridesmaids - the heavyset one who was a relative of the groom (if I'm remembering right). She had some of the funniest lines in the movie! Hence, the reason she's up for an Oscar. Oh, and her real name is Melissa McCarthy. (Here's a link to her website, in case you still don't know who I'm talking about.)

Those are only two examples of real-life, regular people who had to wait - in this case, for their success and celebrity-status. Interestingly enough, this grand success did not come right after they graduated college,or in time for their 30th birthdays (Wendy's 48, Melissa's 41). But it did eventually come.

Stories like these are a helpful reminder that I need to learn to wait for what I want (in my case, a job that allows me done flexibility and an opportunity to write). I was just going to post a short blurb about this on my Facebook status, but then thought about how it could help our loyal followers.

If you're waiting for your chance to live black love, please just learn to wait. Like Wendy and Sookie, don't limit yourself by saying, "If I don't do this by this age/time, I'm not gonna do it." What if they had said those things, and quit before they had a chance to share their talents with us? So, our lesson for today: no time/age limits for when you should be engaged, married, or have kids. Just do the work (as I'm sure they both did) in the meantime to get there. And when you do, you'll be ready for all that comes with that personal success of yours.