I hate when people are late! I hated it when I was a little girl, waiting for my friends to be dropped off at my house to play. Now that my friends can drive themselves and can control when they arrive places, I hate when they are late even more! Don’t they remember they learned to tell time in elementary school? I remember struggling to tell time with the two different hands on the clock. I also remember most of the other students having less trouble than I. So how is it that the people who were good at telling time are now the ones who are always late, and the person that had trouble is always on time? I am guessing now those people are too lazy to look at the time, so they are always late! People need to relearn that the numbers on a clock are finite values, not suggestions.

Take the term ‘on time’. 9 a.m., for instance. No, it does not mean that you leave your house at that time. It does not mean the minutes it takes to get dressed and rush out the door after your friend honks the horn. Nor does it mean standing on top of a clock tower. As you can see, the definition of ‘on time’ seems very unclear to people. It very simply means to be where you say you are going to be at the exact time you say you are going to be there. In fact, to be there by the time you say, you actually have to be a little early. That way, you are ready to begin when the exact time comes. In my opinion, being slightly early is proper manners.

Being ‘fashionably late’ is a concept coined by the people who oppose having the proper manners of being on time. When did being fashionably late become popular? When did good manners go out of style? People invented this term as an excuse to be inconsiderate and still be ‘cool.’ People have condoned being fashionably late enough to make it the norm. It is not cool to be inconsiderate. Being cool is not showing up to work out of breath with your hair spiking in every direction looking disheveled. It is not causing other people to sit awkwardly at a meeting waiting for you to show up. And being cool is certainly not getting the door closed in your face when you are trying to get into a theater once the play has started.

I propose we start the trend of being fashionably early! That way, people will not have to wait for each other.

Not waking up seems to be the main reason people are late. Going to bed four hours before you have to be somewhere is not smart. Waking up is not rolling out of bed five minutes before you need to leave your house. It is not hitting the snooze button ten times when the alarm goes off. What is the value of a snooze button if it only contributes to how late people are going to be? Don’t people understand the concept of an ALARM clock? It keeps track of time AND it can be set to wake you up at any time you want. It should not tell you that it is time to keep sleeping. If late people did not ignore their alarm clock, they would have no problem being on time.

Some people avoid being perceived as tardy by using ‘ish’ when they set a time. What is the meaning of ‘ish?’ Maybe it is the childish way that people act by being late. Or maybe it is the time it takes people to distinguish between on time and late. Or is it how much less people accomplish when they are not punctual? The meaning can be seen in the embellished stories people create when they are late, or in the selfishness people exhibit when they are late and make others wait on them. What does saying you will be there at 7ish even mean? 6:45? 7:03? 7:12? I know that it can’t be anything near 7:30, because then you would have said 7:30ish, right? Stop being vague, give a time, and be there at that time.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen people pulled over for speeding, and one of the top excuses seems to be that the driver was running late for work or some important event. Police officers will give you a warning for speeding, or give you a ticket. Either way, getting pulled over makes you even more late! Is speeding really worth taking the chance of being pulled over and receiving a ticket? You would save yourself, and the police officer, time if you just left your house on time and followed the speed limit. If people were actually considerate, they would leave with plenty of time to drive the speed limit and get to where they are going on time.

Even worse than being late, is leaving early. Many people seem to think they are on their own timetable, and no one else’s time matters. They are wrong. Strutting into a classroom late distracts everyone in the room, including the teacher, which wastes time because people have to refocus and remember where they were before the interruption. Leaving a classroom or business meeting early has the same effect, because it is rude and shows that you think your time is more important than anyone else’s. We should be respectful by showing up early for an event and waiting until it is over to pack up.

People will keep being late until it is no longer socially acceptable. Everyone should learn what I learned in elementary school: early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. The time shown on the clock is exact. It is not something that you can alter to your own convenience.