Imagine a naive and inexperienced child, exploring endless possibilities. They begin to build a tower composed of their hopes and wishes. As they grow, their tower grows. It grows like a ladder to heaven, where all their everlasting dreams have been granted. All of a sudden the sky drops the weight of the world, onto this tiny building belonging to a kid, whose confidence has flown out of the window. 

Expectations. How can an assumption, normally portraying the “better” side of a person, deter them, preventing them from becoming the best version of themselves? While expectations are a good way to set goals and plan accordingly, they can be a real obstacle, especially when it affects more than just us. Whether these expectations are from ourselves, or our peers around us, it can be a real challenge- like trying to predict every chess novelty. 

Checkmate? Easy, next one. 

Life is not always a child’s play. Life is filled with unknown moves and who knows what is to come. Speaking realistically, it’s impossible to always know the answer to why certain things happen, to be prepared for every out-of-the-blue moment. Unexpected events can disturb the flow of your expectation. Maybe the expectation, itself, is keeping you from events of more importance.

Most of everyone is dealing with the same problem. Expectations related to school, jobs, and social fittings. So why, then, is it a big deal? Expectations can put a lot of excessive pressure on one’s shoulders. One expectation may be doable, but as they stack on top of each other, it becomes an unbearable game of Jenga. And when a certain expectation is not met, that’s when the tower starts to collapse. Remember when it was just a fun game? A game where children could experiment and not worry about making a mistake? What was originally a motivator turned into a destructive, janky jet, crashing and plummeting one’s self-esteem and progress. 

Generally, when a person has accomplished a great number of successes, the public puts them to a higher standard, sometimes unpractically. Opposingly, when a person hasn’t had many previous accomplishments, they are downgraded and relegated. Both of which can be extremely detrimental. Either way, the people carrying society’s expectations are the ones left to pick up the toppled blocks, each one with a disappointing sentiment. There’s always that “What if?,” that lingering fear that something will interfere with the nature of your success path. To think that’s all life is- fear, stress, sadness, and pain- hidden under a facade just for show. 

It’s hard to convince everyone because everyone has their own life and problems, and too much to be carrying the grief of others. But if everyone can just accept everyone else with empathy and a light heart, all the world’s complications would be much simplified. Let a kid be a kid and an adult to keep dreaming. Because expectations should be the foundation to lifting each other, not dragging each other down.