I am starting to believe that we have a finite amount of patience to use throughout our lives. Unfortunately for all those who come in contact me from now on, dental school has severely depleted my reservoirs.
In dental school, we have to have every step checked by an instructor, and for good reason, because we're students and there are some not so great ones out there. We seat the patient, and check in the medical history with the instructor. We prep the cavity, or crown, or whatever, and check with the instructor. We fill the tooth, check with the instructor. We have signatures upon signatures to get, we run around, we jump through hoops, we drive ourselves crazy trying to get everything done to get out of this place.
I used to wait patiently for instructors to finish their conversations with each other and come to my cubicle to check on my work. But the longer I'm in here, the more I find myself on the verge of bursting out and actually saying all the frustration I'm feeling. "I NEED YOU TO LOOK AT MY PATIENT FOR 30 SECONDS BEFORE I CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE! DO YOU THINK YOU COULD SAVE YOUR CONVERSATION ABOUT YOUR BACK PROBLEMS AND GET OVER HERE?! I HAVE AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE A PAYING CUSTOMER IN THE CHAIR! (there may or may not also have been some more colorful language interjected throughout the internal tirade)
I find this spilling over into other areas of my life. For instance: WALMART. OH THOU GREAT SELLER OF CHEAPNESS AND SUCKER OF TIME. Apparently, I am the only human being to enter that store who would like to be on my way doing other things. I had another internal wig out at an entire family of mosiers blocking my way down an isle. MOVE WITH A PURPOSE PEOPLE!
The only exclusion to my patience drought are my kids. I do lose my patience sometimes (Halle is acting very TWO lately). But God gave parents this amazing gift of selective amnesia within 30 minutes of them being asleep for the night (They must be asleep for this phenomenon to occur). And all you can think about is the cute stuff they did, and all the tantrums seem not so bad.
I hope my instructors experience this phenomenon when I do finally wig out and through my own 27 year old tantrum.
I'm not as bad as this post sounds like, but I can feel a change within myself. 4 years of being at the bottom of the totem pole does that I guess. Perhaps just a mild case of senioritis.
9 months ago
8 comments:
I cuss people out all the time in my head Of course, in the car it's not so much just in my head. I dread the day Justin repeats from the backseat, "idiot driver!"
And what is it about watching a sleeping baby that makes all the screaming, hitting, pushing, pooping and whining from the day suddenly seem so insignificant?
Oh, I so feel the pain with no patience in Walmart. There must be a requirment for a slow non-efficient mindset to get a job there. I always pick the slow lane - Oh, wait they are ALL slow! :-) Way to go with dental school. My sister Krista's hubby just finished and started a practice. He loves it! Tell Annie hello!
AMEN BROTHA!!! Start shopping at Target.
Have I not shared with you my remedy for Walmart? I was in there shopping and, of course, in a hurry. Turning down one aisle in the food section I was immediately discouraged by a sluggish cluster of people with loaded down carts that appeared to be going no where anytime soon. Of course what I needed was past the cluster, so I tried the 'ole go down the next aisle and come up the other end trick, only to be met with another sluggish cluster. After my 3rd attempt [not to mention being four aisle down from where I wanted to be!] something in me snapped. I gripped the handle of the shopping cart with both hands and headed straight for the cluster. . . and when I was just a few feet away, I picked up speed. To my surprise there was a rapid parting of the sea moment, and the looks on the sluggish shoppers faces were of shock and awe, as if I had commited some social taboo. I smuggly whipped around the aisle and took on my next cluster with the same magical response. I was hooked! I went looking for the clusters - I took two clusters out in one swoop in the cereal aisle. It gave me a heady sense of power and control! I wanted to stand up on a large display of 500 count boxes of Otter Pops and shout "BOW BEFORE ME GODS OF THE NARROW AISLES AND WEEP!!! BAH, HA, HA, HA!" But I didn't, of course, I know where to draw the line.
Grandma M.
Wow, this is an interesting side of you Mom. We all know how you like the power and control! I will have to try this technique. If I don't have a kid in the cart, I usually abandon it at the end of the isle and walk in and get what I need. Of course sometimes there is no path through the sluggos even without a cart. Then I just start shoving people.
. . . I think mom's gone crazy!!!
I'm so glad you guys have a blog. I think that it is goin to help us all stay linked together after school is over. Rob I love this entry it is so hilarious.
"MOVE WITH A PURPOSE PEOPLE"
Perhaps the best thing I've heard all day.
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