The Waiting Place

Last year, I received a copy of Dr. Seuss’s Oh the Places You’ll Go. Although I love the entirety of this iconic book, my favorite part goes like this: “Headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place…for people just waiting: Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting. NO! That’s not for you! Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.” I had no idea how applicable this passage would become in my life, but it didn’t take long before it did.

After my senior swim season was tragically cut short by an untimely Covid infection, I found myself in a Waiting Place of my own filled with a mix of depression, anxiety, boredom, and anger. I felt like I was just stuck waiting, idly passing the time until it was time for me to go to college. Senior year should be one of celebration and fun, but mine was shaping up to be nothing but an intermission period in between major acts of my life, just waiting. My mom listened to my fears and frustrations about being stuck in a circumstance beyond my control and wisely said, “Oh Avery. You’ve got it all wrong. This isn’t a waiting year; this is a DOING year! Remember, bloom where you are planted.”

Tired of doing nothing day in and day out, and wanting to follow her advice, I volunteered at a local nursing home over Christmas break. I was then offered a part-time job, and I ended up absolutely loving working there! The personal growth I experienced during the latter half of my senior year was tremendous as I learned to love people some might deem difficult to love. I made some wacky friends, ones with whom I NEVER would’ve interacted before. I gained life experiences that most will never truly understand. I had something to look forward to each day. No longer was I idly biding my time until college arrived. I escaped my Waiting Place and instead found myself in a bright place DOING things, incredible things, that I had never imagined would bring me joy.

The ancient Israelites know what it’s like to be stuck in The Waiting Place. After failing to hearken to God’s prophets and commandments, the Babylonians destroyed the temple, burned Jerusalem, and took the Israelites into slavery. The Israelites were quite literally stuck in circumstances beyond their control. They were stuck in The Waiting Place. Naturally, their first question was, “How long are we going to be here? How long until we are delivered out of this place? How long until we can be happy again?” In response to their questions, God instructs the people, “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands” (Jeremiah 29:5-6).

Anyone who has built a house, or planted a garden, or birthed a child knows that it takes months or even years for these events to come to pass. In fact, the Israelites’ captivity lasted for 70 years. If they had spent that time merely standing idly by, waiting to escape and find bright places, they would’ve wasted an entire lifetime in bitterness and misery. But in the words of Audrey Hepburn, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” God’s instruction to the Israelites – to build and to plant and to celebrate weddings and births and seek out the bright places – was given to help the Israelites realize that they could find joy even in the middle of Waiting Places. God knew what my mom did, that we can bloom where we are planted, wherever that happens to be.

Russell M. Nelson said, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” The truth is that every one of us will end up in Waiting Places at some point in our journey through mortality, but that doesn’t mean we have to be stuck there. Dr. Seuss, wise as he is, got one thing wrong: Waiting Places are not useless. They can give us space and time to grow in ways we couldn’t if we were immediately delivered out of them. We can experience joy, create bright places, and bloom wherever we are planted. Eventually, the waiting ends, just as the sun rises each new day. And if we live every day with hope in the Savior and His infinite Atonement, we can find joy in The Waiting Place.

Avery Palenske has successfully taken her first college midterm…and ya girl got an A!! She is living all the typical college adventures, from making a burger run at 3 am to crying over a homework assignment to losing her voice SCREAMING at football games. Although it is sometimes hard to wake up on Sunday mornings, she always makes time to attend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.