50. What you expect and what you get are often different.

How often do you find that your expectations of an event or a site and the reality are so often miles apart? One of life's lessons that can be the most disappointing is to have an expectation ahead of time about a new friend, a social function, or a travel destination. Setting expectations often leads to disappointments.

In a few instances, our reality can be far better than our initial exception. Before I experienced my first root canal I had been led to expect a terrifyingly painful encounter similar to a Guantanamo fingernail extraction. In reality, after freezing the infected area, the rest of the procedure is totally painless. On the other hand, I have no hesitancy in going for a haircut. In one experience in Turkey after the barber had finished my quick buzz cut, he sent a shiver through my body. He approached me with a  flaming Q-tip that had been dipped in alcohol and proceeded to singe the hair from my ears and around my sideburns. I thought that I had been selected for some kind of ritual offering to the barber gods. You just never know what to expect.

In my many travels, reality and expectations are also often different. I was excited to visit the pyramids and the sphinx in Cairo. The Giza pyramids lived up to their massive press clippings but the little sphinx was a disappointment. The lonely little partially destroyed sphinx was about the size of a small barn and there is only one ( thus the article "the"). I was surprised at how tiny the statue of the Little Mermaid in the Copenhagen harbour and the famous Belgium statue of Manakin Pis in Brussels were. On the other hand, the Lion of Lucerne seemed the size of a commercial plane and the Reclining Buddha in Bangkok seemed the length of a locomotive.

Most importantly we should not be too quick to predetermine how we will enjoy a new acquaintance or social gathering. I often don't look forward to an unknown play or concert or musical recital and have been very positively surprised. I try not to prejudge anyone I meet for the first time but prefer to let them either grow on me or disappear. It is a far safer practice than setting a high expectation based on second hand or no information at all. Be cautious with expectations!