Homecoming weekend. A time of frivolity. A time to take the pins out of my beard and let it hang down.

This homecoming was different, though. 

Instead of going to the soccer games, or the theatre production or the dance at the Salt Mine, I spent all of six hours in the emergency room in Lawrence watching people come and go and dispassionately observing how each patient was handled and how they handled their own pain.

Let me tell you, everyone reacts differently. Just ask the cast of “Scrubs.”

This column is not being penned to analyze the differences in our society’s handling of pain, it’s actually to talk about something more people see every day and experience every day. 

Folks, impatience is rampant among us. It’s as if it’s a giant elephant raging around a port-a-potty.

Many people I know have a problem with impatience, but it becomes quite apparent when sitting in the triage listening to someone I affectionately got to know as “Knife Guy.” 

You see, he was suffering from a nasty cut on his hand. He kept complaining about how long he was there.

I had been there for at least an hour longer than him, but I didn’t complain, at least not out loud.

I realized that there were people in triage that were much worse off than my friend (the reason I was there) or Knife Guy.

There were head wounds, sick babies, all sorts of things; and they all deserved to be admitted earlier than my friend. 

It was inconvenient that I had to spend my entire Saturday night in waiting rooms and exam rooms.

Honestly, though, the only thing I lost was time.

This impatience ties directly into my FY 150 class. We’re discussing the so-called millennial generation.

The class had to give examples of traits it thought the millennial generation exhibited.

One of the most prevalent was impatience. My generation, for the most part, wants everything RIGHT NOW. We hate slow drivers, slow talkers, slow interwebs, etc. <br/>We're taught that if we're not doing something, it's a waste of time. We're taught that if we're not doing something, it's a waste of time. 
We’re taught that if we’re not doing something, it’s a waste of time. 

Time, time, time. We kill it, we waste it, we do unspeakable acts to time and yet it still works for us. It keeps on going.

The funny part of all of it though? We’re so impatient in classes, meetings and other events, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone lament the fact that they didn’t seem to have enough time or that they didn’t know where it all went.

We can’t get time to move fast enough, but once it does, that’s a bad thing.

Basically, if you’re fluent in the specific dialect of rambling inconsistencies that I tend to employ as my chief form of communication, I congratulate you.

However, I also urge you to, please, take some time for yourself to slow down and enjoy life.

Not everything needs to be done quickly.

The best meals are not made in microwaves and some of the best stories are of epic length.

Don’t be Knife Guy, complaining the entire three hours about everything from the fact that we aren’t socialists to his lack of “chaw.”

And just to prove a point about impatience, I decided to keep this column short.