In my life, I’ve learned and understood this: you can’t get what you want as soon as possible all the time, and it may not be worth it to get it as soon as possible. Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s quote, “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, to greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea,” helps me to realize this. I can think of some small instances that I have experienced that I can relate to this quote, but there’s one that really sticks out.

I have had a PlayStation 2 video game system for 5 years. It was the only console I ever had. It was all good and fun for its generation, but nowadays, it’s considered “old” or “last generation” technology. Realizing this, I wanted to jump into the next generation and see what “now” had to offer. The generation had just begun two years ago, and I had my eyes set on one console: the Xbox 360 from Microsoft.

I never owned an Xbox, and don’t own an Xbox, but somehow the 360 appealed to me. Maybe it was because Microsoft got a 1-year head start over Sony and Nintendo with their consoles. In early 2005, I always looked up the 360 on the internet, checking out technical specs and the features it had to offer. I was a “fanboy” back then, what the video game community calls someone who praises one video game system and rejects the rest. I always imagined myself owning one, enjoying it to the fullest. I was so excited when it came out.

Me being naïve, I didn’t know how fast new video game systems sold out. I pleaded my dad to get me one the day after it came out. Of course he didn’t, and even if he tried, it would have been gone from the shelves. Finally in April ’06, my dad came up to visit from Georgia – he had moved to Georgia about 2 years before my mom, brother, and I did – and decided to get me an Xbox 360 before he left. I was so happy, I hooked it up right away after school, and started playing the Need for Speed game he bought with it. The graphics were like nothing I ever saw.

2 weeks later, it started freezing. I thought of it as nothing. It started happening more and more, to the point where I couldn’t play anymore. I was shocked, disappointed, devastated. I refrained from sending it in to Microsoft for repair because I heard online that Microsoft support was terrible and they didn’t fix your system (how naïve I was!). After at least a few months of searching for a way to fix it, I finally decided to send it to Microsoft.

I get it back I don’t know how many weeks later, and it seems to work fine. But a few months later, my birthday this year, it starts freezing again, and eventually I get 3 red lights – hardware failure. So it’s going to the repair center again, I don’t know when I’m getting it back. Luckily I’m not a fanboy anymore, and currently own a Wii for gaming pleasure.

I learned two things from this whole ordeal. First, don’t try to stick to one thing all the time, “lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach,” as Lindbergh said. And second, have patience, look into what you want and how it’s doing before you buy, and don’t get everything right away. Wait for the right time, then go for your desires. It’s like a cat hunting a mouse, it waits for the right time, then pounces and retrieves its reward.