A Double Standard of Sorts?

I lack patience. And when I'm talking to someone who I enjoy the company of, especially a boy I like, I appreciate those quick replies. It makes conversation feel less broken up. And I also strive to reply quickly. But then today, a friend of mine disappeared for eight hours. What the heck, we talk all the time, how dare you have a life outside of talking to me???? And yet the previous evening, I did the same thing, disappearing to binge watch Netflix and eat ice cream without snapchatting or messaging as much. I shouldn't complain, and yet I was still frustrated. But I know I'm not alone, I've seen plenty of whiny tweets or complaints from people about replying faster, and lord knows I favorite those tweets, because I feel that struggle too.

But sometimes, you gotta take a step back. If we all replied to each other instantly, we'd stop worrying about each other in real life, and all our communication would take place over our phones. If we don't vanish from the internet to meet up in real life every once in a while, what are we really doing? It shouldn't matter how long it takes for someone to reply to you in a text, an email, a snapchat, a DM, any of it. If you really value their time, and they value yours, if you both value the conversation being had, it doesn't matter when it stops. Because it will always start again. Even if you don't talk for a week. Two months. If one of your phones falls in a toilet, you'll email or make a better effort to get coffee weekly.

And when the conversation fizzles, it's okay. Not every person is your best friend, otherwise the term best would have no meaning anymore. Real best friends talk more over coffee or lunch than via snapchat anyway, who are we kidding. There's too many juicy things to share than you can fit in a snapchat caption, duh.

Now having written this, I will still await replies from people. It happens. But don't put too much pressure on a conversation, or a quick response. That's something our generation does, and it's just not necessary.

Stop waiting
Claire
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