He's not exactly the most gifted lyricist ever, but Tom Petty pretty much got it right when he sang, "The waiting is the hardest part."
That's pretty much where we stand in the sports world right now, as there's a sense of this moment in time being like the night before Christmas.
Case in point: The United States men's soccer team.
Not long ago, the Americans seemed to be spinning their wheels, making small amounts of improvement during the first year under coach Jurgen Klinsmann. It was a frustrating process, seeing flashes of strong play followed by stupid mistakes that made you shake your head.
But now, after a 4-3 win Wednesday in a friendly with Bosnia-Herzegovina, the United States finds itself in the midst of a 12-game winning streak.
The latest win marked the first come-from-behind win on European soil. Not the first this year. Not the first in Sarajevo. The first EVER comeback on European soil. Since they started playing in the early 1900s.
Things seem to be clicking very well for the squad, as it is showing off all the facets needed to be successful. Jozy Altidore had three goals in the most recent win, allaying fears the Americans didn't have the dangerous striker needed to be a serious threat. The defense, often porous in the past, now suffers fewer and fewer lapses. And goaltender Tim Howard is a stalwart between the posts.
Which brings us to the waiting being hard to stomach. As the United States plays some of its best soccer in years, we're still a year away from it paying off. The start of the next World Cup, hosted by Brazil this time around, is still 298 days away.
Will the Americans be able to continue their high level of play for a year? Let's hope so. I'll actually take an optimistic outlook and say perhaps it's good we're still that far off. Because while they've been playing well, there are still a few costly lapses by the Americans in each game that would be killer in matches against the world's elite. There's still room to improve, and there's still time to do it.
But they're not the only ones who are dealing with waiting. High-school sports fans around the area are counting the days until the fall sports kick off, and many seem to be chomping at the bit.
We're just five days away from many of the prep football teams playing in Jamborees, with the real games starting a week after that. And other fall sports are just 10 days from their first games.
Still, these days before the season, along with the first couple weeks on the schedule, are an important time to use that example of the U.S. soccer team. While things may be good, there's always room to improve.
You need look no further than a few examples from just last fall.
Take girls volleyball, where everyone knew Fatima would be good. The Lady Comets were coming off a 2011 season in which they took second in the state, and they returned the majority of their key contributors. So expectations were high.
But Fatima didn't rest on its laurels, as the Lady Comets used the regular season to get even better than they year before, and that paid off with a state title in 2012.
Things were a little different for the 2012 Jefferson City Lady Jays tennis team. Not many people were expecting much out of that squad, but the Lady Jays used every match during the season as a stepping stone, and the journey eventually took them all the way to the Final Four.
It was a little different for last year's Blair Oaks football team. The Falcons had plenty of returning talent, but there was a question of just how far it might take them. Blair Oaks used the first part of the schedule to find its identity, then the second part of the schedule to hone that identity. That growth process eventually got them all the way to the state championship game.
Three teams, three different scenarios. But while it's easy to want just fast-forward to the end and find out where teams are going to finish, fans should resist that temptation. These next weeks and months are going to be crucial in determining just what those finishes will be.
Take it from a writer more gifted than Petty, one Ralph Waldo Emerson: Life is a journey, not a destination.