On Time Is 5 Minutes Early

A Raccoon, named Trent, was rushing through the forest to make it to an interview. He was already running late and had to rush by several folks who stopped him along the way to say a friendly hello.

“Hey Trent! Good to see you today!”

“Sorry, can’t talk I’m late for an important interview!” Trent would say, as he kept right on running.

His interview was scheduled for 2:30 PM and when he looked at his estimated arrival time on his phone he was scheduled to get in exactly at 2:30 PM. But, as his father always told him, “If you’re on time you’re late.”

Trent rushed passed several other friends who wanted to say hello to him. This made Trent anxious because he hated not saying hello or stopping for a chat with anyone who asked him or offered him one. What if one day he wanted to ask someone for a chat but they ignored him? That wouldn’t feel very nice.

But what could Trent do? He had to be on time for his interview and he was already late. If you’re late for the interview the employer has the right to judge you as being irresponsible and therefore not hire you, and if you don’t get hired to do work in the society that means you will probably die.

So Trent did what the responsible thing to do was which was disregard all his friends and try to get to his interview as quickly as he could. He rushed and rushed and rushed.

Trent’s friends completely understood why they weren’t very important to him right now. In this society it was very important for Trent to get to his job interview and get the job. If he doesn’t get the job, Trent could die and that’s not something what any friends wants for their friend.

So they figured one day when everyone was alive and all jobs had been done they could all get together and be friends and stop and chat whenever they wanted.

Trent arrived at his job interview at 2:29 pm. He was only 4 minutes late for his 2:30 pm interview. The interview went great, but as he was leaving Trent couldn’t help but wonder if those four minutes would be the difference between having a job and possibly dying.

Lucky for him, Trent got the job.