Expectations Vs Reality

      When we were young, we all had these detailed predictions for what our senior year might look like. It’s constantly brought up in movies and tv as the quintessential teen experience. It's the year of prom, and graduation, and the ending of our childhoods. We carefully examine the past seniors, waiting until it can finally be our turn to fill their shoes, crafting our expectations for this “special” year. Yet now that we're here, actually living it doesn't seem to live up to the ideas I had in my head.

        I always pictured it to be a year without stress or hard work. I would spend my days relaxing, preparing myself for college, and having fun with friends. So far, I have accomplished exactly none of these things and it's basically been another long year of the same. However, senior year isn't the only example of this. Most of us can think of several times our own imaginings of what something might be like were seriously overestimating the reality. Homecoming dances, for one, tend to be a universally underwhelming affair.

        Whenever there is a significant life event or time period, people’s stories and the media’s representation of it tends to only encompass the exciting and interesting aspects of it. This leads to a narrow perspective of it that people, like me, accept as truth. Meaning that when we finally go through it and it isn't picture perfect, we are left with a crushing disappointment.

        As we all prepare for life after high school, a fear of expectations is just as important as ever. Like senior year, college has its own set of anticipated events and hopes. However, it is impossible to know what each of our college experiences, or other paths, might entail. Because of this, we have to remember to not let ourselves focus on what might be. The only way to ensure a positive future for yourself is to go out and make it that way.

        Now that we are finally in the second semester of our senior year, it's important that we don't just wait for the possibilities of our last year of high school to pass us by. I for one am making it my goal to make the most of the rest of my senior year, rather than waiting for it to live up to impossible expectations.