Old man at the register taught me something about patience

I was at the Kroger off Southport Road last Tuesday and this elderly guy in front of me had like 3 items but was taking forever to pay. He kept fumbling with his wallet and the cashier was getting all huffy. Instead of rushing he just smiled and said "honey, the only thing I'm in a hurry for is my next nap." Made me think about how I'm always racing through the store like it's a competition. Dude was like 80 and clearly didn't care about the 20 other people in line. Has anyone else had a random stranger just hit you with some calm wisdom like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean10d ago

Totally agree with you man, I had almost the exact same thing happen to me at a Home Depot a few months back. This older lady was taking her sweet time picking out light bulbs and her husband was just standing there grinning while I was internally screaming. She eventually turned to me and said "the secret to a long life is never rushing through a hardware store" and I just had to laugh because she was right. It's like these folks have figured out that none of this stuff matters as much as we think it does, you know?

adam_nguyen710d ago

There was this time at the grocery store where I was literally doing the cart shuffle, trying to get around this old guy who was just staring at the soup cans. He finally looked at me and goes "you know, I spent 40 years rushing and I don't remember a single time it made anything better." It hit me pretty hard because I'm always the guy checking the time on my phone while waiting in line. Ever since then I try to remember that being a few minutes late really doesn't matter in the grand scheme. I'd rather be the chill old person someday than the frazzled one.