"The world may never know." We've all heard it before. The catchphrase for Tootsie Pops. These treats have been around for plenty of years, and still they are a popular candy. In fact, I am eating one now, and I know that I will never know the truth of how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
Like I said, "The world may never know." That's because the world is too impatient. Humanity is too impatient. We approach all of life's problems like we approach a tootsie pop. Sure, the crunchy outside is okay, but what we really want is the delicious center. Our minds cannot fathom waiting several more minutes to get to what we want, so our instincts kick in, and we chomp down to claim our prize.
Why is it that we can't take our time to reach our goals? We expect to be handed a royal crown when we put in barely enough work to earn such treasure. Impatience is the downfall of human kind, because it leads us to rash decisions, and it leads us to develop egos that are not easily broken.
For example, I have seen plenty of college students graduate and expect their dream jobs gravitate towards them like a magnet, which they seldom do. Many are not willing to relocate or even start small, and because of this, they find themselves lost in a pit with no way out but to say, "I was wrong." Dignity binds these people to the darkness of the pit, and I do hope that one day they will climb out.
Another example of human impatience lies in interactions with other people, especially romantically. Relationships all too often fail because we chase after the "Perfect Person," or "The One," instead of finding somebody that we can experience growth and learning with to become that image. The truth is, "The One" doesn't exist from the start, but people who rush to find them often are the first to fail, or, in other words, they go straight for the center of the tootsie pop.
We even get impatient with our friends. If our friends do not think like us, we often get angry. Think of politics. We live in a very opinionated, unhealthy setting when politics are involved, and very, very rarely we are able to talk about our views without somebody bashing us. If we would take the time to understand the reasons that our friends believe in different policies than we do, we could really appreciate a different point of view on the world.
The world truly will "never know." We will for eternity spend our days crunching through life to get to the best parts, and we will fail to appreciate the work put into the sections around the center. Good and bad, we have to savor even the smallest details of life to truly be living. We only live once, so why rush through living?
