Wait and hope

For several months now my son has been asking me with a certain insistence – bordering on stalking – to buy him a laptop. He has used various techniques to get it. Every day he listed new reasons why he should have it. Obviously the main lever he relied on was school. «I need it for school, to do presentations». Obviously, both he and I – and you readers – know that the main reason is to finally be able to play Minecraft and Fortnite! But this will remain between us and we will pretend indifference. «No way son, you will have to wait for your birthday. It's 6 months away». After a couple of weeks, the boy returns to the charge and says confidently: «I'll pay for it, with my life savings». Like any self-respecting man, I sidestep like this: «I'll talk to Mom about it.» Don't judge us, but after some reasoning that I'll spare you, we decide that it can be done. The look of happiness on the young man's face at the news is priceless. At this point, both you and I know that I can't wait to play Fortnite with my son, and obviously, no one must know this. «Dad, when is he coming?». «Delivery takes two weeks, son.» His look becomes lost: «But how can I wait two weeks?». «One second after another... my son,» I reply. But waiting is a rather unknown concept for the new generations. My grandfather always told me: «If you don't know how to wait, wait until you know how to do it». «And thank goodness» I thought. Then while waiting I understood! It's banal to say but to understand every single thing in life you have to know how to wait.


Andrea Go
NP February '25