A Beautiful Experience - Essay Example

As a teenager, way into my late teens as well, I was always very restless. Patience is a quality that always eluded me. I often wondered how peoplecould persist with something single-mindedly without even a remote idea of the positivism of their results. I, on the other hand, was hungry for results. Something had to keep happening, if I was to give a concept my undivided attention. Fortunately for me, I underwent a paradigm-shift one day that I least expected anything radical to happen. It was a regular November afternoon and after a short post-lunch siesta, I strolled down to my neighborhood coffee shop to grab a bite.

I ordered my regular Cappuccino with chocolate sauce and took my regular table just next to the magazine panel on the left hand side. I picked up a slightly older issue of Time magazine and was reading about the U.S. Presidential Elections. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a handsome-looking man sitting at a table slightly away from me. He had European looks, long flowing hair and a very athletic body. He seemed to be deeply involved in his work, whatever it was that he was doing.

All I could make out was he had a pencil in his hand and it looked as if he was making random notes or maybe making a sketch, who knows? Maybe he was a painter, I mused to myself. A quarter of an hour later, I had nearly finished my coffee and an article simultaneously. My eyes happened to venture towards the man again and his condition was the same, posture unchanged. I realized that this man had immense patience and the focus of an eagle that targets its prey on earth when it is flying high.

I began to get more and curious about the activities of this man, but unfortunately for me, there were none except his calm, poised self at work. As I looked on, I realized he had finished his work and was winding up his pad and pencil, gulping down what remained of his coffee, which I am sure, would have turned cold by now. I saw him rise to leave and I could not stop myself from running up to him on the door and asking for a glimpse of what he had accomplished in the last half of an hour.

“Are you a painter?” I asked. “No. I am an undergraduate student. This is my first sketch.” I could not believe my eyes as he showed me a simple sketch of the coffee cup and saucer in front of him, very elegantly done. He seemed meticulous in his work. “This is your first sketch?” I blurted out. “Yes, I know it has not come out too bad! I better be going. ‘Bye.” He said, leaving. The regular November afternoon turned out to be a lesson in patience and single-mindedness.

I realized the important of being focused in my work, oblivious to my surroundings. In addition, of course, more than anything else, the experience taught me that patience, as is often said, is the key to success. From that day on, I found myself making an effort to inculcate these qualities within me until gradually, they became a part of me and went on to become my strength.