Expectations By Others

Expectations of us fulfilling certain criteria go all the way to the moment we're born. Names that were given to us are what our parents expect of us when we grow up. Anything from mythical animals to religion's important figures and even pop culture, they expect us to grow up with the qualities that our name represents. For example, strong like a tiger, beautiful like a phoenix.

When we get a little older, say kindergarten age, parents start expect us to be as good as the kid next door. They would compare how talented their kids are. Children are push to various classes from ballet to musical lessons, regardless of the child's interest. Simple math and alphabet are being taught. There's no time for play anymore. Parents would constantly tell their child how much better the other kid is, and how disadvantage we are if we don't catch up. Of course, at this point in life, we wouldn't understand why and it's best to follow our parent's teachings.

Then there's the start of schooling life. With the competitive attitude instill inside us (not that I say it's a bad thing), we see exams and tests in school as an arena to prove who's superior. Parents expect their kids to score perfectly in all the subjects, be the top student in the class. Academics become the sole indicator for a kid's potential. However, just how many top 5 students there can be in any one moment? For those who can achieve it, proceed further in his life believing nothing less that is a possible option. For those who couldn't, they might think they're just stupider than others, low self-esteem starts to breed.

As many of you might already knew, the education learning curve is dramatically raise with each stages of our education. It is inevitable that a straight A student could one day loses his streak. Given that he been living in the bubble of excellence all his life, the day he fail to achieve it might just break him. The world collapses around him. All that he felt is failure despite commendable result.

All is not good either for the student that didn't starts with a perfect score earlier in the schooling life. Low self-esteem has already reached a critical stage. Some might give up putting effort, thinking they're stupid anyway while others stress themselves too much.

Effort seems irrelative, only results matters.

College, the big choice, career path. Anything short of professionals isn't good enough. Be realistic we're told. Enslaved by the social acceptable choices of career.

At this point, I should stress that I'm not telling everyone to rebel against their parents. Their words have wisdom. However, we shall perceive reality of the situation according to our own view as well. Time changes alot of things. Slavering over someone else's ideal thoughts will not bring happiness. Regrets don't come to you overnight. If you're lucky, you could still fix the situation when u regret. Many however isn't so.

Know what are you capable of. Put in your best effort and accept what are you capable of achieving. True, everyone's born equal but that doesn't mean everyone's the same. Some are more creative than others while some are better academically.

Kudos if you could live up to what people expects of you. Fear not if you didn't because at the end of the day, you live for yourself.

I apologize for my slow and rubbish post. I ain't exactly in the best situation to blog lately. Will try to live to type another day, see you on the streets.