UNITED STATES—I know I am getting older. Why? I used to the patience of a turtle, but nowadays I don’t like to wait, and you can see it on my face when I am annoyed. Back in the day I used to love the notion of Black Friday camping out and waiting for a deal that is so unbelievable you have to do it.
I used to love the notion of waiting in lines when it comes to rollercoasters, but at my age today, I just don’t care to do it anymore. I have never been as restless as I was recently waiting to get on rides at an amusement park. I remember when I was a teenager, I would wait hours, and I mean not 1-2 hours, but 3-4 hours to get on a single ride at one of my favorite amusement parks ever, Cedar Pointe.
Why? I love rollercoasters and to me there is no park like this one. It has something for all ages, kids, teens, adults and older adults, however, as I get older and reflect on the park compared to when I was a kid to what things are like now, wow things have changed. Back then you could get to the park as soon as its opened, and the lines were super long no matter what. You’d be lucky if you got on 3-4 rides before the day ended nearly 20 years ago because the wait times were that long. The thing was I was ok doing that, in 2026, not so much.
You would be literally waiting in the sweltering heat, no fan, nothing to cool you off at all, today they have fans, but it’s still hot, you sweat and it’s just uncomfortable if I’m being honest. Today, things have changed you might wait between 1 hour to 2 hours max, but even then, I hate that. Why? You tend to have certain rides that encounter mechanical issues.
As a result, you find yourself sitting in line for 1-2 hours, only to discover right when it’s your time to get on the ride, it has broken down. All that waiting for no payoff, is not just a bummer, but it’s annoying. I rather just get in line and get right on the ride that is what I enjoy the most. I don’t want to wait anymore, and I don’t think that is just me, I think that is all Americans. We have no patience at all. Look at how we react when we are given the opportunity to get things shipped right to our home the same day thanks to Amazon.
I had the same argument with someone recently about that. I said Amazon is not the only tool when it comes to getting things right away. You could just get in your vehicle or used transportation to pick it up in person. You know what happened when I said that the person laughed. They laughed because they knew it was true and I was simply calling their bluff.
There are some things we will do in life that we will just have to wait; that is the nature of the beast. It is not the end of the world, but it’s simply fascinating to see how little patience so many of us actually possess it is quite scary to say the least.
