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I don’t like inconvenience when it comes to time. And this summer, I was tried severally when it come to my time.

As you may have noted from few other blogs, I am in summer program that if it was my wish I would not have attended. I am not a man who stays in a confined place with no good reason.

My boss said he would be on the ground at 7:30 am and for seven out of the eight Saturdays he come here minutes past 8am, he walked in to do what he had to do with no apologies or remous for his late coming. This propelled my anger even more, but as old Swahili man would say, “masikini hana chake” the poor has nothing of their own.

On of the best quotes I found while researching for this article was from Dr. Forni, “We respect other people’s time when we learn to value it as much as our own. Even better, we can get to a point where we won’t distinguish between our time and the time of others.”

Just like me, you must have had a taste of this, you know what I am talking about because we all do it from time to time, we all disrespect other people time, and we do have our time disrespected sometimes. It is annoying. To me time is gold to me, it is precious thing I have, I cannot save it for later, not can I give it, I cannot even pause it,(I wish I could) so why play with my time? It is now … and this is when my time is valuable, at list show some respect. By disrespecting my time, you clearly show that your time, your demand, and your wishes are more important. And no matter who you are, you are not doing good at all.

It is pass 9pm as I write this and it is because I am bothered, it’s been itching for few weeks now, I have been like…maybe it will get better but naaa! …… the man is taking liberty of his authority.

I wish he could deeply know…. It’s my ‘me’ time, it is very limited, so I value it a lot especially since its only weekend I can sleep little longer and relax in my room. I am not sure if I am on this alone, but I know many of us battle big war within and without and no one knows and no one cares. And just a moment to breath, to relax and be by self is so precious that we thirst for it, I long for Saturdays to come so I can be inside and not see no one. I have come to value my little time more and more since I have curried a lot of emotional abuse during the week and here one day that I am getting and no respect my time.

In Jamaica just as in Africa, ‘time is not the exact time we agree’. I hate that philosophy. You must know the feeling, I believe you may have faced that moment when docs appointment is 9am and though you were there 10min before time and you were ushered inside so warmly, suddenly its 11am and the doctor is nowhere to be seen. You’ve invited your family for lunch and the arrive one hour late. Allow me to say, it is disgusting.

In todays world where everything is instant, time is a commodity that is so precious and essence that you will not want anyone to play with it “nyara nyara” ……  and having someone with all senses and in a profession that demands sense and here they are disrespecting my time, I get furious.

It is so funny that while reading around I found a statement that reads that, “Not respecting the time of others is a serious sign of manipulation used to control others. People who are chronically late, or who seem to have no respect for the time of other people are passively trying to control a situation with their tardiness. Those that don’t respect the time of others, however, don’t see that way – and often have a narcissistic view that shouts, “My time is more valuable than yours!” that is rude, to say the least.

Building a relationship around such persons is difficult to deal with, if I cannot trust you with my time, how you expect me to trust you with my other part of life? Simple!! Don’t expect forgiveness every time you do this, especially when it looks so clear that you are the boss. Again, it doesn’t matter who you are and what you do, and position you take in the society and community, still respect people time, My Time My Gold. Put yourself in other persons shoes, it is very important to think how others feel and stop operate under the umbrella that your side rain much, your life is busier and of more importance than the others. This worse than a dictator.

On the other side of the coin, it is also important for us, me and you to be mindful of other people’s time. Be on time or even little early. Be ready to apologies if you are late and realize other people are busy too. Do not make it a habit of saying sorry, for sorry do not put food on the table. Just as your life is not easy or your time valuable, so is other peoples life not easy and their time precious.

If you are sincere and honest of your caring about others and genuinely respect them – you gotta do your best to honor and respect their time. Be committed to their time as much as you want yours to be committed to them. Saying No! it cannot work is not cowardness, remember you cannot be in all places at the same time.

Stop using people like a puppet. It is not okay for people to be flippant with your time. Flexibility shouldn’t be reason to make me wait. Do not buy the teaching of ignoring little things such as these, they are important, they are precious they are gold to you as they are to them.

You know you are ruled when you cannot criticize your leader. Yes… there may not be way to say STOP! But for sure time will come to stand up for self, take measure and force them to respect your time. It doesn’t matter who it is, your time is important.

Time is coming to say, “RESPECT MY TIME” & woe to you for it will be too late to know how much you have wounded others with your disrespect, how much you have lost trust for the small things you didn’t take seriously.

 My Time My God, please respect my time.