Watching the mempool during congestion really feels like watching a cafeteria line: you think you've already swiped your card, but you're actually still at the back of the line moving around. First, your local wallet sends out the transaction, then it gets queued in the node's "pending" list, and miners/validators keep an eye on the fee to decide whether to include it. If your fee isn't high enough, you'll keep waiting, and when the market suddenly moves or the pool thins out, the slippage curve hits you hard. The most annoying part is when someone adds a higher fee to cut in line—you get bumped out, and in the end, you either fail and spend gas fees or the final price is completely different from what you initially wanted.

Recently, during airdrop season, everyone is running tasks like going to work, and platforms are still implementing anti-witchcraft point systems, making the chain even more crowded. Honestly, at this point, I’d rather withdraw some liquidity, make fewer moves, and if I really need to trade, I’ll treat "getting stuck/being front-run/price slippage" as the default risk—saving my life first.