ABSTRACT
Etymologically, the origins of the word ‘wait’ indicate ‘to watch’ and to ‘be awake.’ Border waiting engenders wakefulness and vigilance. Waiting is being in a state of consciousness. The person in a state of waiting constantly thinks about her or his waiting. Wakefulness makes border waiting similar to insomnia, that is a compulsion to be vigilant and pay attention to what is happing around oneself. Similar to the one who waits, the insomniac thinks about the reasons for her insomnia and seeks salvage from it. A waiting-towards the not-yet is attentive and oriented. What keeps the person in prolonged waiting awake is not measuring the chronological time, chronos, but chasing moments of potential opening, kairos. Border waiting is not a static condition but rather a process and a practice. Waiting as wakeful navigation through material struggles in the present and ‘directing one’s mind toward’ the not-yet is a daily practice. It is an act of citizenship.
