The Death of Anticipation

When was the last time you were really waiting for something you were looking forward to, with lots of anticipation?

When I was a kid, I remember looking forward to things that would only happen once a year, or once every few months with great anticipation.

I remember waiting and waiting for certain toy catalogs to be released. I remember waiting for monthly comic books to come out. I remember waiting for the annual stamp collectors' catalogues to come out.

I remember "sending away" for things through the mail, and waiting for 2-3 weeks before whatever I had ordered would come back, in a box, in the mail.

Anticipation was part of daily life, whether it was waiting for dinner to be ready, or the summer holidays to begin.

In our day and age, it feels like everything is becoming more and more immediate, and people are expecting everything to be available... right now. This sense of immediacy feels like it is actually killing our ability to experience anticipation... we have grown more and more impatient, and less and less willing to wait for good things to come along. Instead of experiencing longing and anticipation, we experience irritation.

Heck, in many parts of the USA, Amazon will now deliver whatever you ordered by drone, within hours of your order.

Many would argue that we are better off as a result of all these advances that allow us to have and experience things the moment we indicate we want them. But is that really true? Or are we losing an important part of our humanity, as a result of never having to wait for something good to come our way? And what does our impatience do to the world, in terms of how we treat each other?

I believe one of the reasons I remain so fond of gardening is that growing plants — especially from seed — is a very s-l-o-w process, filled with anticipation and hopes. I don't think I would enjoy it nearly as much if the seeds truned to fully grown plants in a matter of minutes.

When I "unpack" that, it feels like we have grown excessively focused on the end result, while overlooking the process of getting from here to there; from desire to having.

And it manifests in rather unfortunate ways, too.

I look at what many are describing as the dating and mating "crisis" in which people struggle to find someone to share their lives with. Digging down, it often turns out that the expectations of time needed to get from meeting to marriage has grown shorter and shorter.

But relationships — especially deep ones — aren't something you can "hurry," at least not if you were hoping for leng-term stability!

And so we end up with the alarmingly high break-up rates, as well as many people rejected the idea of having a life partner, simply because it takes too long and requires too much effort.

There are many aspects of being alive that simply don't benefit from being accomplished in a shorter amount of time!

And when we force the issue, I fear we are losing touch with our natural feelings of anticipation.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? How do you feel about anticipation? Does it make you impatient and wish to have things NOW, or are you OK with waiting? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.02.23 14:34 PST
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