Full of heartfelt New Year resolutions two girls desperate to make a living out of their creativity decided to go for a drink every Friday. To discuss their progress of the past week and to give each other that well needed motivational talk. All worked out very well as they were both being more productive during the week than before. One thing though became very obvious: one of the girls was always a little early, while the other was permanently a bit too late.

In this miniature story I’m the early girl. Maia is the late one. Maia can’t seem to help it, but is always a tiny bit late when it comes to appointments. Not that she really is awfully too late. It’s just that when we’ve agreed to meet at 4:00 PM, I’d usually arrive at 3:57 and she would be present at 4:03. The result is that I have to wait for six minutes. No big deal, but still.

Maia and I are not the only ones I know with a different view on time. My friend Darrell, for instance, is one of my camp, as he is always a little bit early with every appointment. Matt, on the other hand, tends to think that five minutes past the agreed time is the same as being right on time. This made me think. Apparently, there are two kinds of people on this world: the latecomers and the waiters.

Maia and Matt are frustratingly alike in the matter of coming late. However, I find it somehow easy to accept when it comes to Maia. Probably because she’s earned the privilege to keep me waiting by being my best friend. As for Matt, it took me quite some time to get used to his unconfined interpretation of time.

I remember several occasions during which Matt was supposed to impress me with terrific dates in order to turn me into his girlfriend. Unfortunately, well, let’s just say time wasn’t on his side.

Perfect example: in our early days we were going to go to the zoo together. I’d invited him to come over for a quick bite prior to our trip. It’s 9 AM and I’m all dressed up and busy creating the breakfast I had planned for us. Then my telephone buzzes with a text message from Matt. “Hi, yesterday got quite late. Slept at 2. Is it okay if I meet you directly at the station at 11?”

Another date was going to be a nice and cosy brunch at my place. He was going to bring the food and was invited for 11 AM. At 11:45 he finally arrived, but by that time my romantic thoughts had already been replaced by crankiness because of my hunger.

I was not amused. As part of the punishment he had to wait a few more months until he could finally call me his. Matt probably behaved like that because he was nervous. These days I merely sometimes tease him for it smilingly. However, he’s also a notorious latecomer in normal day-by-day life.

I asked him: “Why are you always late? Do you have difficulties with planning your time, or do you just don’t care?”
“I don’t feel like I’m late when I’m there only just a few minutes after the agreed time…”
“But somebody like me has to wait like six minutes for you. That’s a long time when you’re waiting…”
“No way, you’d only have to wait for maybe three minutes. The other three are because you are early, not because I am late…”
“Well, maybe, but if you think that I’m too early, then you should admit you are in fact too late.”

It’s not a coincidence that I’m the one writing about this subject, not Matt or Maia. Because I’m the one who cares. I like being on time. I like neat planning. I like everything happening exactly when it should be. And I absolutely hate waiting.

The funny thing is that the solution seems so very simple. Waiters should just come a few minutes too late as well! The problem is that I just can’t. Not only would that mean the latecomers have won. Moreover, I’m just physically incapable of doing so. I simply have to be early!

It will never change that some people are more strict with time than others. But what strikes me most is the highly ironical part of this classification in people. Those who are very precise with time usually dislike waiting and tend to be on time. Consequently and ironically, the people that actually care about time will probably waste more time waiting than those who don’t.

Column published by Cecile on Monday, January 14th, 2008.

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