Expectations

 We, as humans, tend to expect certain things out of everything, be it a new food item or any of our relationships. These expectations are of two kinds. The first kind is where you, kind of, know that you are expecting something specific like if you have a close friend, the last thing you expect from them is to wish you on your birthday. The other kind is when you subconsciously have certain suppositions in your mind but are not aware of them. These are the ones that might cause everyone a bit of trouble.

Let me try to give an example of that second kind. So, all through our life, we keep meeting new people and often get attached to them. Remember in elementary school, when you were a friend of all those who commuted in the same school bus? They all seemed so close to us at that stage in life but as we grew, we kept meeting new people, sometimes even forgetting the old ones. We connect to a lot of people in our school life and since most of us usually spend a good deal of time in a single school, we happen to know many people for a very long time, even though we might not have even talked to them. 

Then, we enter college and things are not the same as the school at all. You meet a whole bunch of new people with no old ones to count on. These people don't know you at all and nor do you know anything about them. It's as if starting from that elementary school stage but just a bit tougher. That's because it feels like you somehow were friends with the whole school without having to put in any effort and everyone still got along. But in college, you got to meet numerous people, try to connect with all of them (not to mention that you have to start with the whole process all over again with each one), only to find out that you can truly connect with a couple of them. At times, that causes a mini heartache. But have you ever wondered why that is so? Because it was only a short while ago that I realized that the real reason for this is our own subconscious expectations. Without even knowing, we had set up a bar of expectations, according to which we would not need to put in many efforts in befriending anyone, and when we do, the other person will automatically turn out to be a really close friend. 

Everyone says college is fun and it surely is with the right group of people. But being in college teaches us how to deal with different people and how, many a time, our own expectations could hurt us more than anyone else. And I believe that it is important for us to embrace and accept that transition because this is what will prepare us for our life ahead. I guess, making friends out of strangers would be an important lesson to remember when we are to deal with our workplace colleagues. So, it's natural to have expectations and feel like some things are supposed to happen in a certain way, but we should always be open to new experiences and not hurt ourselves because of them.