Expectations and realities

If I've learned anything the past year and a half of being in college, it's that I shouldn't automatically assume the best of some people and that they have good intentions.  I've learned that I shouldn't be so quick to open up to people who I think are my friends. I've never really had trust issues, but some experiences that I've had with certain people this year have led me to start keeping people at a distance. I've always given people the benefit of the doubt, even if they don't deserve it.  I guess it's just my personality?

But something weird I've noticed is that sometimes I assume the worst of people and they actually turn out to be pretty cool once I get to know them.  I feel like a lot of people do this, and it just reiterates the whole 'don't judge a book by its cover' thing.



I don't know.  I just think it's weird how life works that way.  Expectations and disappointments. If you expect too much, you end up getting disappointed.  If you don't expect much at all, you end up being pleasantly surprised.

Expectations are usually different than reality.  The scene in 500 Days of Summer,  where they show one side as Tom's expectations of how his re-encounter with Summer is going to be, and they simultaneously show his reality on the other side has always stuck out to me so much because I feel like I can really relate to it.

But why is it that our expectations generally don't match up with our realities?