Since the start of the pandemic last year, when a national lockdown was in effect and an Inter Agency Task Force implementing rules were strictly observed there were major changes in the lives of many Filipinos.
I remember when the lockdown was announced in March 16, 2021, we were in Baguio City that time. Only one person was allowed to go out and I am the one who got the quarantine pass because my 2 children were both minors. From the place we live, I need to walk 1.8 kilometers to get to the city and that's about 30 minutes of walking. And since I need to buy everything that's good for 2 weeks, I patiently endured walking back home with a very heavy load and it went on for several months.
When I am already in the city, I patiently lined up to wait for my turn to enter the supermarket, pharmacy and even waiting to have a jeepney ride (jeepney transportation was allowed only I think around the month of May or June) going home. During the lockdown, lining up is always part of the game.
In July, we had the chance to go back Manila because the Baguio LGU allowed the travel of LSI (locally stranded individuals) to return to their hometowns and we went through the process of securing our travel pass. As always, patience was part of it. We brought with us a lot of patience just to secure our travel pass. Long lines and tiredness have tested the patience of everyone else.
Now that we are in Manila, I still can see long lines and long waiting time but I guess we have been used to it. We've learned to apply the value of patience, we've learned to respect long lines (no more cutting lines) although there are people who are always in a rush and lose their tempers amidst the long lines.
This pandemic has taught us that patience is really a virtue. Everything will be in order if we know how to be patient in everything. Getting impatient will now only gives you stress (because.you will begin to get angry and pissed off) but it will make an annoying situation between you and the people around you. You will also disturb the peace and order of the people who are keeping their patience long enough to wait for their turn.
So if you see, a long line of people please respect those who are in line. Don't cut lines. Go to the end of the line and be patient like the others in front of you. All of us will have the equal chance to be served.
People's patience have been tested a lot in this pandemic, and it still is. Hopefully, once all this over, we can still exercise it as prudently as we have been now.