the waiting is the hardest part | me vs. tom petty

Tom Petty and I usually see eye-to-eye. After all, I’m an American girl raised on promises, and there have been plenty of moments when I’ve wanted to free fall out into nothing. I’ve suffered from nostalgia-induced hindsight when it seemed like the good times were a little bit more in focus, and I know that even the losers get lucky sometimes. But when it comes to waiting being the hardest part, that’s where Tom and I don’t agree. . . at least when it comes to certain kinds of waiting.

In the I-want-it-now-meaning-5-seconds-ago world we live in, waiting can feel uncomfortable, even unnatural. And yes,  I have counted the {seemingly endless} minutes until I could wrap my arms around a faraway someone. I’ve yearned for summer’s arrival and wondered just how long it could possibly take to make one grilled cheese sandwich at an über-slow diner. Sometimes, though, waiting can be a honeymoon of sorts. It becomes a welcome pause where possibility runs rampant, and anything can happen.

 

I recently had that sort of honeymoon after submitting a novel rewrite to an interested agent and three editors. After digging in and doing the work, I exhaled into the space between going for it and getting a response.

 

Then, after eight weeks of bobbing along on the buoyant waves of waiting, two rogue swells {a.k.a. rejections} rolled in. Getting a double dose of “thanks but no thanks” in one week? Definitely harder than the waiting. Standing by for a response from the other two? Well, that’s where I am right this very minute. I’m recharging to be ready for whatever happens next and listening to some vintage Tom Petty while I’m at it.

 

What do you think? Is the waiting the hardest part?