Expectations are a prerequisite for disappointments. When we start out with expectations, it’s a given we are going to be let down. As I spent my day in travel and in transit, all I heard was complaints around me. Travelling is not a fun experience for the most people in America. The system is designed to frustrate, anger and exhaust us. The food is ultra expensive for no reason, other than gauging. Gauging is suppose to be a crime, but not at airports. How did a water bottle become worth $5? Gauging. Fast food outlets jack up their prices, so even a hamburger is an unreasonable price. Is there something I don’t know about food prep at airports. Is the food special? Maybe the food has gone thru security and they have weeded out the food terrorists. Stuff which can makes us fat or kill us.
There is this unreasonable expectation passengers have about their flights being on time. Why would you have such high expectations? It’s futile to expect flights to be on time, the gates to match the boarding pass or other fliers to be civil. In today’s day and age it should be impossible to find someone who hasn’t flown before. Yet every flight I take there are people acting as if they have never been on a plane before. This particular flight people were jumping lines, as if their seat would not be there. Maybe in the future there could be standing room only flights, however your assigned seat is yours; or is that another expectation not to be met.
An interesting thing is the brown in me finds my expectations change depending on the location. When I am in Africa or South America I expect to find dirty airports, and crude bathrooms. I have had to squat at holes in the ground at airports, and walk over puddles of piss. It hasn’t fazed me nor bothered me, yet in America paper on the floor or too much water spilled on counters gets me angry. I have expectations for America.
There is a saying beyond my expectations. Never happens in North America. Airports and travel in North America are never going to meet my expectations. Yet in third world countries I am so happy when the WiFi is free and readily available. Something which is not possible in the great America of Trump.
The biggest let down will come, when we put expectations on people. The brown in me is not cynical in general, however life has taught me not to put my expectations on others. It’s not being pessimistic but understanding. Only we, ourselves, can put and meet demands on our behavior, ethics, and expectations. The brown in me will not project my ideals on others, which in a weird way always leaves me happy when people are nice, kind, helpful, civil, ethical and human.
Source: ItsTheBrownInMe
