Blockade Party: Patience Pays Off

Ten years ago I fell in love with this dress red Backgammon dress by Bea & Dot from ModCloth.  It was at the time when pretty much every dress that ModCloth debuted cost $100 and rarely went on sale.  So, sadly, I watched it sell out without being able to afford it.

Thanks to my obsessive nature, I never forgot the dress and over the past decade I have continued to search for it on various resale sites.  I got close a time or two, but it was always so far from my size that I couldn't tailor it.  So, I kept waiting.

Patience and consistency aren't a guarantee of success, but they really do help the odds.  So, I checked again the other day, for the nth time and lo and behold, this beauty was available in my size and for only $30!  It's not in perfect condition, in fact I had to set about patching a 3"/7.5cm long rip in the lining near the shoulder, but other than that and two very tiny spots on the skirt, the dress is in excellent condition considering how old it is.

Waiting all these years to find this dear old dress, reminds me of a larger point about life and how we live it.  It reminds me of a sort of tortoise approach to life where slow and steady pays off over a mad dash to have everything all at once.

We live in a world where we want everything right now; we don't want to wait for it.  I've heard many frustrated people say something along the lines of if I can't have it right now I don't want it at all or if I don't do this right now, I'll never do it.  As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a prevalent message right now telling people if they don't do things like go to college and get a career before they have children they never will.  That's stupid.  It's about as stupid as pushing kids to go to university fresh out of high school because if they don't go then they never will.

Plenty of people, if not most people, need time to figure out what they really want anyway.  I watched so many of my classmates at universities all over the world struggle with the exact same issue of feeling that had rushed into secondary educations for careers they weren't even sure they wanted yet and then be saddled with a debt so huge they had to stay in those careers to pay them off.  And that's if they found work in their field at all.

On the other hand, I know plenty of people who had their families first and then, once the baby days were done, pursued an education and a career in a field they both loved and were ready to commit to because they had taken the time to live life, mature into adults, and figure out who they were and what they really wanted to do with their lives.

I'm in the same boat myself.  I left high school two years early so I could jump right into my university studies.  Only days after my 17th birthday, I started classes thinking I knew what I wanted, but after a year I changed direction.  Then again.  And again.  Until I was running out of time to get my degree before the grant money dried up.  I chose something I thought I could do proficiently and would offer me a chance to travel the world, since that's what I thought I really wanted to do...until I found out I was expecting my first child.  Suddenly, school was just the thing I was doing until my real life started.

People offered a lot of unasked for opinions on my decision to stay home, telling me if I didn't finish my master's and doctorate degrees now I never would.  I told them I had only one chance to raise my children and if I wanted to go back to school later, I would.  Twelve years of momming, homeschooling, and traveling, laughter, and adventures later, it was time to say goodbye to the most rewarding chapter of my life thus far and start something new.  So, here I am, over 40 and starting classes again, working toward a new career path that truly does make sense for me, who I am now and who I was then but just didn't know it yet.

People used to say in real estate it's location, location, location, maybe that's true, but in life, it's timing, timing, timing.  Don't get frustrated if something you want doesn't work out right now.  Keep going, and don't forget about the things you want.  If you patiently pursue your dreams, no matter how big or small, sooner or later, they will come true.

Shopping Info:  ModCloth's Blockade Party Dress by Bea & Dot