Don't wait

Today I took them off.

I got it to the point when I started liking them.

It feels weird and different and sad and yet great not to have them.

Braces. Today I took them off. It was time.

:)

Having your braces done when you're thirty must be different to experiencing it as a teenager. I am sure I would not have appreciated the end result as much.

--

Reflecting on having them on and the whole story that led to putting them on made me think about two things: the value of commitment and the value of time.

Braces took the whole 2 years. It's 2 years of different eating habits, 2 years of brushing after every meal, 2 years of sore mouth, 2 years of seeing the doctor every 6 weeks, 2 years of smiling the metal to the world. And yet I've enjoyed having them on since day one...

4 years to decide I needed them had built strong enough commitment. After 4 years of thinking I had figured I'd better had them on for 2 years and be done with it than keep mentally struggling every time I wanted to smile. People who know me know that I smile a lot. It was hard to keep it up. I simply knew that if I had endured 4 years of deliberation I could endure another two of having them on. It worked out pretty good.

I wish I could generate same commitment without double wait time :) Though, it's not exactly a x2. It will soon be much less. Now, after I have them off, I will wear retainers. It's another year of some appliance in your mouth full time followed by a night wear ... forever. Or as long as I am concerned not to give my teeth even a little chance to go back where they were.

The thing is, once you build a foundation - you feel very connected, very afraid to lose it, very sorry to even think to have to start over. I have another one like this. I quit smoking 7 years ago, used to smoke a pack a day and stopped one day. Just like that. The only thing that kept me from smoking again was the fear to have to start quitting over. Literally. I still have that motivation with me.

The question is, why it is so hard to commit to do other things? Spend an hour a day studying or reading or writing or painting or exercising and just keep doing it for 2 years? I bet the foundation built would not be less sorry to lose than that of a better looking smile or not smoking.

I will tell you in 2 years.

Time flies by. 5 or so years ago, when my son was 2, I mentioned to my mom about how I noticed the time went faster. I said something about the time passing by in weeks, not days as it used to. And she said: wait, it will soon be years. I did not give it much thoughts until recently when I felt it's definitely months. It was the braces check up appointments that made me realize. The constant schedule of having one each 6 weeks soon became a routine, a metronome of life.

2 years will pass fast. I am not going to lose it waiting. And neither should you.