In my life, I have always understood that punctuality is one most important skill, and it is for this reason that I am always on time. Yeah I am that friend who rush to the restaurant 20 min prior to the reservation time just to get our table. I am that student who pops in class with their pen and notebook ready before the lecturer even switches on the projector. And as for punctuality, I always make it a point that I am early or at least on time. It gives me satisfaction to be the one who sets the pace in achieving the goal in the early morning like the bird that wakes up early to get the worm.
That makes me think of why I am always on the side of being early, and I believe it is because of my background. I remember my parents telling me as I was growing up that it is wrong to be late as a respect to the other person’s time. I learned those lessons and now it is almost a phobia not to arrive on time for any engagement, let alone a responsibility. I would prefer to arrive early and twiddle my thumbs than to be late and be the reason for a misfire.
Despite such effects, there are merits of my punctuality philosophy. This way, I am free from worries that may arise from being late and it also gives me time to prepare well. It also gives me an added few minutes to get comfortable, to read over anything that I might have missed or to start a conversation. I also believe that people like it – I have seen lecturers even smile when they find students already seated for a particular lecture; friends too like it when I make arrangements for a particular place to be saved for us.
However, this is not the only good thing about it because there is also a dark side to it. My thinking process is very much like the early bird that gets the worm but in this instance I find myself waiting most of the time. If it is waiting for 20 minutes around a classroom, or eating a meal by myself at restaurants, only to receive a stream of texts from friends saying that they are still running late, I use an awful lot of mental energy just being…waiting. Wouldn’t it be nice to just relax and not always be in a rush making me crave for being on time all the time?
I am also discovering that not all are morning persons like me. Yes, there are friends who are also happy to come early as much as I am excited to go there early. While some people consider timed commitments as precise instructions not to be violated, others consider them just as guidelines. Some cultures I have established specifically have a lenient way of perceiving time and hence they are not very strict with time as other cultures are. As anybody who has ever sat in a graduation hall will testify, graduations are infamous for the fact that they never start on time. Dinner parties anticipate that most invitees to arrive late, within 15-30 minutes past the recommended time. I have become more lenient with time especially when it comes to being tardy for what is deemed acceptable in the society.
In the long run, I also understand that punctuality is useful and well received most of the time; Sometimes it might feel like sitting alone for a couple of moments while others hasten to join in. But I also never have to sit in a classroom or an office knowing that a race to class or to work is imminent and with sweat on my brow and my foot in my mouth as I apologize for running late. I will prefer arriving early to a situation where I attend the event and feel so inconvenienced by the arrival time that I had to set for myself.
Well now please excuse me while I go stalking by the door until our dinner dates this evening! I'm kidding, there's no dinner date. But my microwave and I have never been closer.