Yesterday, I was fortunate to be in a doctor's waiting room. I consider it a blessing because being able to wait for a doctor indicates that you have the means to pay for their services. "Consider those who are homeless and cannot afford to see a doctor who charges for their services."
Anyway, to get back to the point of this post ...
As I was waiting, there were three groups of people. One group consisted of a mother and her daughter, another group included an elderly woman, and the third group was made up of a young adult. They were seated apart from each other, as if they all had the plaque. I took a seat and decided that I wasn't in the mood to browse on my phone while waiting. These days, I am bored with mindlessly scrolling through numerous Instagram or Facebook reels. Even Threads closes after 10 minutes of scrolling.
I decided that I am going to wait in the doctor's waiting area, in the same way as when I grew up. Either paging through the magazines that were on the end table or people watching. I decided on the latter.
My attention immediately went to the mother and daughter in the one corner. Both of them were busy scrolling on their phones. They both seemed to be in a good mood because they both had a smile on their faces. They exchanged a few words between them in a friendly manner, but for the majority of the time, they were scrolling on their phones. It's nothing like me and my parents. My parents aren't big on social media, and mobile data is too expensive for them, so they do most of their browsing at home with the WiFi. So when we do wait in public, we have loud conversations. Yes, we're not big on whispering, and neither are we ashamed to have a good loud laugh in public. It makes me smile when I think about it.
Next, I shifted my focus to the elderly lady. She appeared happy flipping through a regional magazine written in one of the local languages of our country. Unaware of her surroundings, she was engrossed in the articles she was reading. It brought back memories of a time before the era of mobile phones.
My focus was suddenly interrupted when one of the reception staff members requested the young person sitting in the corner nearest to the reception desk to lower the volume on their mobile phone. The individual was preoccupied by watching videos on their phone, and I hadn't noticed the sound until the receptionist brought it up. Her comment made me realize that the noise could be disruptive to their work of answering calls and assisting clients at the reception desk.
Then I heard my name called. I was asked to follow her to the doctor's room and there I waited for another 10 minutes. The chronicles of a doctor's waiting room can be such an interesting thing because people are interesting beings. Do yourself a favor and do people watching more often. There are quite some interesting things we do as humans.
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