Worth The Wait.... (Guest Blog Post)

Nicole Schmidt is a former high school English teacher now Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Vocalist and Editor in the DMV area. She is the author of Inside a Young Soul, a poetry memoir collection about life as a teenager

For more information and pieces by Nicole, aka NASwrites visit naswrites.wix.com/naswrites

By: Nicole Schmidt

Worth the Wait (Part 1)

No longer waiting to write my life away

Living that dream day by day

Now I'm waiting for the love that will forever stay

Waiting, but working to reach the level of spirituality and maturity

Restoring my confidence and even my purity

So that I can be the help-mate that God intends me to be

As you work on you, I work on me

So that ultimately you and I can become WE

And that is definitely

Worth the Wait

I NEVER thought I'd see the day when I would write a poem like this. I have been blessed to live life in natural succession: high school, undergrad, career, Master's...everything that was "supposed" to happen, did. It wasn't because I come from wealth; it wasn't without work or effort on my part, but it WAS one after the other. With that track record, it was only natural to expect marriage and children...marriage by 25, first child by 28…

I'm definitely turning 30 in less than a month and NO, there is no husband and by the grace of God, no children (I learned years ago that I am not anointed to be a single mother). The irony of it all is that I am GRATEFUL to still be single. I always said my life wouldn't begin until I turned 30...words do have power because it is coming to pass…

Who would've thought that at 29 I would resign from my 7 year high school English teaching career to become an adjunct professor? Who would've thought that at 29 I would have published my first book, though I wrote it all when I was a teenager? Who would've thought that I would take a position in China that starts two months after my 30th birthday? And who would've thought that at 30 is when I finally see the value in waiting?

Waiting for sex? Waiting for love? Waiting for marriage? Waiting for children?

Working toward friendship before relationship...working toward acceptance instead of tolerance...working toward individual wholeness before togetherness…

All things that were foreign to me until now. I was so used to the timetable and instant gratification of previous seasons in my life, that I was missing the point of it all. I finally understand the patience that love produces. It's not the same as "keeping hope alive"; desperation is nowhere to be found. The patience of love is like a the patience of a gardener. When the right seed is planted at the right time and nurtured in the right way, the flower blooms and flourishes. Love requires the same care.

Now all this revelation did not come from within. Through observation and conversation with friends as well as a new friend who's shown me that I AM worth the wait, I have reached a new level of understanding and peace.

But stay tuned...it says Part 1 for a reason.