#49 Boasting About Newfound Patience by Explaining, “I got time.”

Time can be an unemployed person’s worst enemy as finding ways to kill time can be so exhausting it’s often rewarded with a nap. But, having all the time in the world can also be life-changing and a really great way to annoy friends. The things that used to be irritating  in life when employed start to slowly fade away as the weeks of unemployment progress. When time was limited, patience was easily worn thin. With extra time comes newfound patience as deadlines no longer exist and there is no longer a pressing need to be somewhere at any given time. 

Take shopping, for example. Lines used to be every working person’s worst enemy. At the grocery store, people with jobs would end up cherry picking 10 items or less just to avoid all the unemployed people crowding the aisles, carts filled with a combination of junk food and an elaborate meal-to-be. When unemployed, instead of rushing through the store for necessities, they tend to maneuver up and down every single aisle rediscovering grocery delights of the past (fruit roll ups, push pops, etc). What employed people don’t realize is how much effort it took for the unemployed people to get ready to go out in public, so they have to make the most out of it. An hour spent taking their time at the market is an hour less spent wallowing at home. 

Traveling is another task employed people tend to dread as getting to a destination can take up so much time. First, employed people hate that unemployed people have the freedom to travel whenever they want. Second, their minds are boggled when unemployed people book trips with layovers or to inconvenient airports (ahem, Southwest) to save money. Traveling on a shoe string budget used to be a thing of the youthful past as maximizing vacation time became more of a concern than stretching budgets. But crafty unemployed travelers are able to easily revert simply because they know they’ll eventually get to their destination, and when they get there they get there. Until then, they’ll enable the time-killing tactics they’ve learned thanks to unemployment and patiently read, play video games, or take a nap. 

If you remove the time crunch factor out of every day life everything becomes easier to tolerate. It’s no wonder unemployed people tend to be less stressed out once they get over not having a job, a future, or financial security. Sit in rush hour? They got time. Wait forever for service at a restaurant? It’s not like they have anywhere better to be. Employed folk just don’t understand this mentality and worry their jobless friends are better people than them. Maybe it’s true or maybe they just weren’t lucky enough to have been laid off victims of the recession who got to earn patience instead of big bucks! Doh.

Tags: I got time, killing time, shopping, travel deals, unemployed patience