Patience

I have to admit that sometimes I struggle with patience. But it's something that I work on.

The other night, I had to go to the emergency room. I went right after work, and it was absolutely packed. Even people who looked really sick had to wait hours and hours to be seen. Some people started yelling at the employees at the front desk and the triage nurse about the wait, even though there was quite literally nothing that these people could do to speed up the process, as there were simply no available beds in the ER. It made me so mad to see people take out their frustration on people who were just trying to do their jobs. Frankly, I've been to a number of ERs quite a bit over the past year, and I didn't even think the waits were *that* ridiculous. To a certain extent, you have to know what you are getting into when you head to a place like an ER and prepare yourself for all that might entail.

For some reason, our society doesn't seem to value patience as much as it used to. In this digital age, we all expect instant results, which aren't always possible. A little bit of patience can go a long way.

In any case, at least now we have smartphones to distract us in waiting rooms!