Promise a child a brand-new bike on condition he’s got good school results by the end of the term. Needless to say he will be very eager to work as hard as he would be able to to get that precious present!
Then, two weeks before the actual date of the term’s end, let him know that, at the end of the day, school will be running for four more months. It’s easy to imagine how frustrated and upset this little boy will be. However, because he can’t obviously burn the school down, he will helplessly sit back at his dusty desk, trying to re-focus on his everyday classes and assessments. Moreover, with the image of this shiny blue bike he’s ever dreamt of sticked in his mind, he will work ever harder, trying not to think about the unfair side of all this.
When he will be very close to the long-awaited deadline day, inform him that, for some reason, he will have to spend the next three weeks locked up at home, with only a couple of games to play with, no friends or family allowed to visit him, but, that after this period of time he would finally get the nice blue bike, that would seem like God to him by then. What do you think these two weeks would be like?
« Long » is probably the first word coming up to our minds. And yes, «eternity» is a good synonym for how long a wait it was! Because, not only did it seem to last for ever but it was also a constant torture since your mind is continuously obsessed by what you have worshipped day and night for ages, counting down every day and hour until the so much longed for day!And eventually, there I was at 3.45am on the 26th of September. There I was, sitting in my car, surrounded by the silent and cold wind. There I was, motionless under the murky lights of a desert gas station. There I was, a moved smile on the face as I started up both the engine and my new life…
