great expectations...

Many a time in life, one has some sort of standards and expectations placed upon one by another. More often than not, such expectations are placed there by oneself. For some, hopes placed by others are seemingly worse. In truth, one is actually one’s worst enemy.

The positioned benchmark is often one so unbelievably unattainable, it causes one to wonder why one even bothers to try. Conversely on hindsight, if one does not make an attempt to try, one will not know how far one can go, nor how high one can reach. Between the failure of falling when one does not meet the standards on the scale, and the failure to try, which failure is more tolerable? Frankly, that seems to be an extremely tough choice.

Whenever a target is not met, the label of “failure” is inadvertently tagged to the forehead of a person. The funniest and worst part, is that there will be times that even after one matches up to the yardstick that was set, no matter how hard one tries, it is just never good enough. The peptalk like rebuttal would be that one should never live up to the expectations of others, nor to live up by their measures but by oneself. Ironically, it is hard to live by that as there would then be no specific point of reference. Then again, maybe that just is the point.

Life is funnily peculiar that way. To need rules and regulations and set standards so as to live life by in an orderly fashion, and yet to see beyond and somewhat live without those very boundaries that were laid down in stone, of sorts, so as to be able to really “live” per se. Yet, the higher the mark, the harder the fall.

Great expectations… one’s saving grace… or one’s nastiest nightmare???