setting expectations

"come to australia expecting the unexpected come opend to new ideas and attitudes (including those you do not agree with or even like). come expecting to be uncomfortable. come expecting to hear criticisms of your country's government (including the current president), and be willing to learn from these instead of being offended. come with an open heart and mind. the many challenges you will confront this semester provide incrdible opportunities for learning and growth. ... in getting ready for a program like this--one that you have been thinking about now for six months of more--you have naturally developed ideas about the program and how you will take advantage of your time in australia. ideally, you should forget everything you've imaged at this point, because the asc will be quite different from what you're expecting."
page 3, the basic information guide.

i've been through a handful of scenarios where everyone tells you to leave expectations behind. i've been to central mexico twice, visited london this spring, spent modest amounts of time in different places in the united states doing completely different things. i've started school in a new place far from home, i spent my first two weeks away from home at seven, first month at thirteen. now, i'm not saying i'm well traveled, and i know there is much of life still to see. i'd be hesitant, however, to consider myself completely new to potentially life-altering situations (or "plas" as i will call them).

that being said, i'm beginning to get a general distaste for being warned to "forget expectatitons" or encouraged to not set up any at all. for many of these plas, the only times i have had anything educated to say about the experience was how it exceeded, met, did not meet, or forced me to re-examine the expectations i had. when i had some sort of criterion to hold the experience up against, i was able to consider it more deeply than if i had none. i would have some kind of standard, some sort of goal that desired to be met or challenged.

unfortunately, i'm just recently figuring this out now. i wish i had set up some actual expectations for other plas in my life, and as a result have more to say about them. but oh! here is an opportunity to make right what i have done wrong in the past. i will start going against suggestion immediately and set up some expectations for my trip. have a wonderful day.

ps. go see ratatouille. good clean fun, and it's mostly over little kid's heads so you won't hear them squealing in the theater--if you're opposed to that kind of thing.