There are Two Kinds of People

There are two kinds of people. The people that wait for the traffic light to turn green, and the people who start inching forward, right before they know the light will turn green.

As a man with places to be, I’ve always been the latter of the two. After figuring out how traffic lights work, and when they’ll usually change colors, it’s become a habit of mine to lift my foot from the breaks, knowing red will turn green in a few seconds. Eyes darting from one overhead light to the next one on my left, waiting for the moment to internally say, now, as the green light shines bright ahead, a light in a very dark tunnel.

Driving down a stretch of traffic light after traffic light on a busy highway and hitting each green light over and over, is one of my favorite short-lived boosts, that calm my hunger. A hunger to move faster, to get to my destination quicker, to ignore the now and get to the part I really care about.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy going for drives and jamming to tunes is always somehow better in a moving vehicle than anywhere else (well, only if the speakers are good). I’ve lived to appreciate the things I receive from my hard work and dedication, and I know I dislike having to wait for them, like waiting for the green light. I’d rather be ready and prepared to move forward when it’s time, than idle by and be left in the dust.

In my opinion, the yellow light is the worst. Do I go through it and risk completely running a red light? Or should I slow down, when me and the grey Honda Civic behind me, knew we probably could’ve both made it. I’ve run quite a few red lights in my lifetime, but I will forever be blaming the damned yellow lights for never being set at relatively the same time.

You think I would learn, after a car crash that totaled my car, a few speeding tickets, and a new bumper, I would finally slow down.

People are funny that way.

Craving what we shouldn’t want, like going faster than 70mph when that’s the limit on interstate 90. Always pushing past the limit is kind of like my unwritten moto, in more than just driving. In my job, relationships, and hobbies, I have the patience of a restless middle schooler, finally in line for the big kid ride at an amusement park. The loud echoing screams of joy, the knowledge of understanding it will be worth it. The feeling after waiting for so many years, of growing, experiencing, maturing, to finally get what I want and what I deserve after all my work has paid off.

The hunger I have for the later, is slowly overcoming my joy for the right now.

One evening, I was driving to obtain some food for my girl and I, who was in the passenger’s side playing Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz (you would know the tune if you heard it) but she was giggling and imitating the laughing track from the song. It was an utterly golden moment. But as we were coming up to the last traffic light, the green shifted to yellow, and I had to push on the breaks.

“Damn, I probably could’ve made that.”

She just glanced at me and said, “Eh, that’s okay, now we get to listen to the song longer.” She paused and bobbing her head to the tune, she continued, “I actually like red lights, they let me listen to my music longer, you know?”

I laugh, “It would’ve been nice to hit every green light.”

“It’s okay, you can’t be lucky all the time, otherwise it wouldn’t be called luck.” She smiled at me with that charming, crooked smile, “Also, do you not like being in the car with me?” she accused, raising an eyebrow very dramatically.

“Of course, I do, I like being anywhere with you,” which is true, I’d spend time with this girl doing anything, even sitting in silence gazing into her eyes sounds good to me.

But still, I lift my foot off the break just before the light turns green, as if an invisible force is yanking me to get to the better parts, whatever that might be. Though I know this is a good, perfectly precious moment, that I’m glad I experienced.

So, I wonder why I can't slow down.

My girl is the former; she’s a person that waits for the traffic light to turn green. She wants to experience every moment, however life willed it to be. Although she doesn’t have a speck of patience in her body, she knows what it means to delay the later, every now and then.

There are two kinds of people in life, and perhaps in the future, I should wait for the green light.