Anticipation and Expectation…

So it\’s the 18th of December, which means it\’s two days to my birthday! That exclamation mark makes it look like I\’m dancing in my room with joy, but to be very honest I don\’t know that I feel any excitement for the day. Don\’t get me wrong, I am glad I am alive to see another year, but usually there is this excitement I have for my birthday, this anticipation of what the day will bring. In hind sight I really don\’t know why I always got so worked up , because I never really did anything , LOL, but anyways at the same time I don\’t regret my excitement.

So, anticipation… I have heard people say it\’s better to expect nothing, because then chances of you being disappointed are pretty slim. At some point in time, I used to believe that theory. I told myself, what was the point in expecting anything if at the end of the day I\’d just end up disappointed. Expecting nothing meant I\’d have zero disappointment, which for me sounded great. But then, where is the fun in that?

Now, hear me out. There are expectations that both you and I know are wrong, false, and just us lying to ourselves. I call that kind of anticipation unhealthy anticipation. Why? well, because it\’s you basically setting yourself up for disaster knowingly. It\’s like you expecting an A in a test you didn\’t study for. I mean, you know you\’re not getting that A, but you work yourself up with the expectation that you might actually get an A for some unknown reason tbh. That, to me, is unhealthy anticipation.

However, where is the fun in having zero expectations? It means you aren\’t looking forward to anything. It means you have nothing that gives you some sort of excitement. Sure, it means you can be disappointed, but it also means your expectation can also be met and superseded. Do you see where I\’m going with this?

The way I see it, for everything that goes right and which you anticipated, half of the joy you get comes from the anticipation, the expectation. It makes it that much more rewarding.

You don\’t want to having expectations that are unreasonable but you should have expectations for your life and different things/events that pertain to you. I feel like, a lack of expectation means that you will let anything slide. It also means, in my opinion, that if something disappointing happens and you have the power to change it, chances of you doing that would be slim. Why? Well, because you expected nothing or something negative and so even though you have the opportunity to fix it, you don\’t, because after all, it was what you expected.You didn\’t have any high hopes or anything like that, so its fine to you…

Thinking about it now, I remember the anticipation I had before my results came out. I mean, I was refreshing my student portal every 30 seconds waiting for the results to come up and the anticipation I felt before, the expectation and all that, made it that much more rewarding when I finally got to see them. But the fact is, if I wasn\’t somewhat confident about what I had done in my exams I wouldn\’t have had that sort of anticipation.

So, even though this seems like a somewhat pointless post, there is a point to it all,I will end by saying this. It\’s a bit of a a balancing act.  Anticipation makes everything so much more exciting. But then, unrealistic expectations are just that, unrealistic and will leave you disappointed no matte the outcome.

So, for those that belong to the school of thought that says no expectation is better, maybe you should reconsider. Because in my opinion, the anticipation makes the reward just that much more rewarding.

Today, I am thankful. Thankful for anticipation and expectations. Thankful that I can look forward to something. To a new year, to a better me.

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