Great Expectations - why do some feel the need to live up to them?

As I spent a lovely afternoon with my son visiting my sister at her home in the mountains upstate New York, I couldn’t help but ponder over the many thoughts that crossed my mind.  I asked my self many things, one of which was why are there human beings who feel the need to live up to other people’s expectations?

I am relatively a very observant person by nature; I can easily sense things and consider myself to be a good judge of character. Lately as I look around at my day to day surroundings and the people in it, I can’t seem to help but notice how people engage in friendships with others just for the pure sake of having friends and being part of, without not necessarily even liking the people, their views, likes or dislikes.

I notice housewives with a lack of zest for life coming in and out of their pretty homes. But, they disregard any negative emotion because they have the house with the white picket fence, kids playing in the back yard, SUVs parked in the garage and delicious stew simmering in the pot on the stove. How dare they complain, after all is this not what most people strive for? Well, isn’t it?

It is like a big trap. If you don’t do this you are wrong, if you do not participate in that, you are different. If you do not live this way, you will not be happy. If you do not believe in that, you will fail. So here you are now caught in net and you can not get out. You are tangled in a life, living according to everyone else’s expectations, but your own.

Still, It is very nice to be able to say that there are many who have not been prey to this trap, those that stand firm on ground and refuse to not be sucked into a mindless fantasy of what a world should or shouldn’t be.

Although, they don't deny society’s right of views and opinions they also do not feel the need to have the same. They knew where they wanted to be, and are what they want to be. As long as these people do not harm others in any way they are content. No ifs and ands, straight shooters I call them. These people consider them selves successful and have precise goals; ultimately they are and will be happy with their own expectations.

And then there are those who still fear they will be alleged as different and so they continue to participate in a mindless portrait of a life. Doing things as others do and laughing at jokes that are not funny, just because every one else thinks they are. They will sit at a dinner table in the company of less than interesting people, just to avoid being perceived as different and the housewives will continue to pretend just for the sake of not seeming like the grass is indeed greener on the other side.

So based on what I have observed walking up and down these colorful streets of mine, I ask you, do you ever feel pressured to do things or live a certain way based on other peoples expectations?

Madison O'