Unexpectations by Danielle

Unexpectations by Danielle - April 2016 Scholarship Essay

“College.” One simple word has come to stand for so much to so many different people and no one experience is the same. So, to those of us who have managed a college degree, or who have a few years of college experience and know-how now under our belts, what advice can we pass on to the future college-going generation? Well, like most of humankind, I am eager and willing to pass on what I think I know better than anyone else. My advice can be summed up in the idea of “unexpectations.”
Expectations can improve an already great situation or they can be heart-wrenchingly disappointing. All of us hold expectations for future events - a teenager awaits the days of driving and dating with both fear and ecstasy, the young entrepreneur expects his big break is just over the next hurdle, the high school graduate expects an exciting college life and so forth. The point is, expectations are neither good nor bad in and of themselves, expectations are simply expectations. Each of us decides how to use them and what we do if they are fulfilled or not.
My college career was filled with expectations. I went to an NCAA Division 1 school to get my education and play basketball and it was everything I expected and more, until it wasn’t. Until my head coach passed away from cancer. I decided to transfer to another school in another state, again full of expectations. Again, life was wonderful and expectations met, until I decided I expected more of myself and I left to serve a service mission for my religious institution. I came back expecting never to play basketball again, until I did. I got married and expected to finish my degree and be done with school, and I did, until I went back to school for what I really want to do with my life.
My point is this: go forward full of your wild, wondrous, innocent and excited expectations! But enjoy every moment, even if those expectations get undone or redone or not done at all. Go forward with unexpectations and enjoy every moment of them. You can expect one thing in your college career and that is the unexpected.