I watched the mempool for a while today, and it felt like waiting in line at a subway turnstile: you click send, but really you're just slipping a small note into the crowd. When there's congestion, your transaction gets pushed to the back first, and with lower gas fees, you just keep "waiting"; if you change the fee or speed it up halfway, it's like raising your hand and saying "I'm willing to pay more," so miners/validators might pick you up first. What's even more frustrating is the suspended state where your transaction hasn't been included in a block for a long time, and you start to scare yourself: did the routing change, was I stuck in a jam... Anyway, it's pretty nerve-wracking.

Recently, cross-chain bridges have had issues again, and oracles have experienced abnormal quotes. Everyone is saying "wait for confirmation," and I understand it even more now— the longer the line, the more afraid someone at the front might suddenly trip.

What I don't regret is: during congestion, I prefer to be a bit slower and split my transactions into several parts, rather than stuffing all my anxiety into one single transaction. That's all for now.