Unexpected Pleasures
Have you ever thought about the roots of all the disappointments a man could have? We have all wondered, but the answers commonly given are mostly our excuses; we like passing the buck onto someone else, shielding ourselves from responsibilities.
At the same time, the main part of our grief originates from the expectations we have built before, the plans we have made and the hopes we have. That is a lil' bit obvious, but you get upset when something doesn’t go the way you have planned. That is quite odd, because the things are going their own way, the world spins around the sun, not around a human being, so why plan too much and make too many expectations? I don't want to be misunderstood, I'm not pretending to be a broken man without any expectations in life, but I vote for a much lighter way of taking expectations and hopes into account than lots of us are used to. Hereby I'm going to explain why using a simple example.
While planning an academic exchange, I had to resolve the issue with my permission to stay abroad. As I am staying there for more than half a year, that was a toughie and the red tape started months before I left, even in Russia. For sure, I could not expect these problems to be that hard, wringing out my powers, time and money, but I proposed that it wasn't going to be a piece of cake, so I just made an effort and didn't dissipate my energy for boggling and did what I had to do — figured it out!
On the other hand, I hope, you would agree that one of the most common origins of our brightest memories are unexpected pleasures. I mean, when you expect less and you are given more, the more you appreciate it, right? The more you take it as a present from the Universe. Talking about the story I began above, the end of it should have taken place at a small Catalan town Vilanova i la Geltru on Costa Dorada, where I needed to have an appointment for a Spanish ID card (which is a pretty wise decision, I would say: they have lots of immigrants and they receive the appointments not only in one overcrowded city of BCN, but all over the region; in my case, Catalonia, so people don't have queues in the offices). So I was sent to this town and made an appointment pretty easily and without any problem. After that I decided to take a look around; I only knew that this town is located near the sea, so I went to the sunny beach, where I discovered a tourist office, was given a map with sights of the town and had an unintended sunny tour around a cozy, quiet and peaceful area of a historical center of Vilanova i la Geltru.
The moral is pretty obvious: the less you expect, the more you are given. Let's not let our consciousness bring us down and let unexpected pleasures fascinate us as much as they could.
