On the Joys of Waiting for a Package

When you’re a kid, the best day of the year is either your birthday or Christmas (or whatever your religious equivalent is). But it’s not just the day of, not just the presents, not just the maniacal tearing of wrapping paper… it’s also the lead up! Now as an adult, I dread birthdays (I still haven’t come to terms with the fact that I’m turning 30…no wonder my back hurts and I’m starting to like golf…) and while Christmas is still great, for me, it’s become more about giving presents than getting presents. But one thing still holds that same kind of excitement: waiting for a package!

When I was younger, my favorite pre-Christmas ritual started when that giant Toys-R-Us catalogue showed up in the mail. Paging through it and circling all the toys that I thought would make me happy forever occupied hours of my time. Once I narrowed it down to my list and passed it along to my parents to send to Santa the waiting game, the low-key best part of the season, began. The time before the toys didn’t live up to the hype, or broke, or were put in the closet never to be played with again, that was the most wonderful part (at least in retrospect, at the time, nothing beat shredding open wrapping paper). And it’s something that I appreciate infinitely more as an adult.

I love online shopping, I’m pretty sure I got that gene from my dad (he’s been buying every gadget imaginable during the pandemic). So, during a time when going to stores felt like an unnecessary risk, and goods are in high demand and limited supply, I’ve been ordering way more stuff online than normal and I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed it. I feel like a kid during the week before Christmas when all I’ve ordered is some floss, a new body wash, and a box of delicious oat milk. I know it sounds boring but once I’ve placed the order, I can’t stop thinking about how this time I’m going to start flossing every day and stick with it! I can’t stop thinking about how incredible this new body wash is going to smell and how it’ll definitely change my life for the better! And I absolutely can’t stop thinking about how good my morning coffee or lunchtime smoothie will taste with the new oat milk! 

One thing being an adult has taught me is to temper your expectations, especially with purchases. You buy a new TV, you know eventually it’ll have some kind of problem. You buy a new car and it’ll break down at some point. You buy a new phone and sooner than you’d like, it’ll be out of date. But that’s the beauty of waiting for something you ordered: you don’t have to deal with the reality of the product yet! It’s all potential! Until you get that package, the thing you ordered is perfect! 

So, while I probably won’t have my life changed by a body wash, while an oat milk probably won’t solve all my problems, and while I probably won’t floss every day (I’m really trying! I’m averaging like 3 times per week which is much better than once a year) I still get excited about waiting for a package full of innocuous stuff.