Honestly I’m having trouble thinking of one significant event in which I failed to live up to expectations set by myself or others. Not that it hasn’t happened, it’s surely happened more than I can imagine, but I guess I blocked those memories out or something. To be even more honest, I feel like I tend to avoid setting expectations for myself as it is. At best I just hope to wake up every day and function normally, eat decently, and take my dog out an appropriate amount. The expectations of others are a different story. I’m not entirely sure what people expect from me but generally I would say I don’t meet them. The most obvious example for would be the realm of schoolwork. Historically this has always been a struggle for me. In the context of this program, this primarily involves these very blog assignments. Naturally, as a student of this program I’m expected to complete all of the work assigned to me, and I’d like to meet those expectations. I care about the content and plan on completing the program, but at the end of the day my priorities involve gaining valuable knowledge and experience, as well as developing a professional set of skills which I can then choose to apply in a context I’m comfortable with. Analyzing corporate jargon and learning about leadership principles and networking are so far removed from what I expected to be doing that finding the inspiration to write about them has been challenging. I understand the value in those practices and the relevance some of the information has to people in this field, and I’m not knocking those who operate that way, but personally I’d rather be serving drinks at some giant tech banquet than be glad-handing for a job at one. But I do want to get everything I can out of this experience and actually graduate and achieve at least a modicum of success in life so like it’s whatever.
