Expectations vs Reality

Author: Lestyn V Lobo
Posted on January 19, 2021

The thought of a topic for this week’s blog post left me quite bewildered as to what content I could possibly cover under this interesting topic; but, something incredibly interesting occurred last weekend which gave me a glimpse and insight for this week’s blog post. We all fall victims to the expectation vs reality fallacy at least once in our life. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to rise up each day at 7 am, begin your workout, head over for breakfast, reach classes in time, stay on top of your studies, make time out of your busy schedule for yourself and your friends? Of course, we would all expect our lives to flow this smoothly with no hardships whatsoever; but in reality, nothing goes according to plan and often we do have to work incredibly hard to stay on track with everything we take up. The proverbial phrase: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, best suits the story I am going to share with you in the next few paragraphs.

It all began when I clocked into my 3 o’ clock shift one long, gloomy, and weary Saturday afternoon. Normally, I would wake up each day being realistically optimistic that I may stumble upon a pile of cash while heading towards Jennings or to work or wherever or even be fortunate enough to receive a call from a well-reputed modelling or acting agency. My expectations are too extreme, and I guess way way way… beyond my reach; something that cannot be acquired within a single day unless I rub a lamp and a genie grants me any three wishes. Who am I kidding, this is not a fairy tale? This Saturday shift started off as any other ordinary day: met up with my partner, patrolled the buildings, engaged in a friendly conversation, sat to complete some assignments, and this would continue for the next three hours or so. Pretty tedious right! That’s what I thought until I posed the question to my fellow colleague whose name shall remain anonymous for now, “Who is your favourite artist?” to which he replied that he does not listen to music composed by famous artists because he is an incredible singer himself who loves to listen to his own voice. I paused and laughed aloud because what he said next blew my mind; he told me that he is a well-known YouTuber who has 1.3 million subscribers. Of course, that is an extraordinary claim, so I would stand out to be quite dumb if I would not ask for some form of evidence. He threw random letters at me to type on the search bar and yet I still could not find his channel on the app. My mind was immediately diverted from the failure to find his channel when I spoke to his room mate who further confirmed that he is quite popular on social media and can vouch for his popularity on YouTube. I started to believe his claim since three of his friends vouched for his success as a YouTuber. He further went on to inform me that he met several celebrities such as James Charles, Tom Holland, Chris Hemsworth, with whom he shot a couple of videos with in the last few years. Now this was a five hour shift, so he spent a great deal of time telling me his videos that he created, how it all started, his estimate, his contract with the school, and several other claims that really got me hooked onto his story and his claim and left me quite baffled. Now, I thought to myself, “I am in the midst of a YouTuber with over a million subscribers… this is my chance to seek fame and recognition.”

After two consecutive hours, during which I could not get any work done because my mind was driven to a world where I was signing autographs and walking down the red carpet, he finally told me that he pranked me that he was a famous YouTuber with 1.3 million subscribers and had not met any of those aforementioned celebrities. Instantly, all my dreams and expectations shattered as he went on to tell me that he pulled out this master prank on me and it worked just fine. After a while, I gradually got back to work only to realize that my colleague started to talk to someone over the phone for over an hour and the subject of that conversation was rather financial. After he got the phone, he walked up to me to inform me that he bluffed and that he was truly and genuinely a YouTuber and that this entire act was being recorded. He said pointing to the camera attached to the ceiling, “I was recording all this while… I pulled a prank on you within a prank!” I most certainly dd not believe him the second time around but then he did something exceptional; he stood in front of the camera and performed an intro to his video three times. I was still not buying his ruse. He further went on to tell me that the conversation he had the last hour was with his editor in LA and told me that since I was part of the video, I would receive a substantial amount from the profit he makes off the video. So, since I did notice that he went through a lot to prove that he is a YouTuber, let alone shoot this entire prank, I got to tell you folks that I went home that night thinking that this would be a breakthrough and my entire life would alter. My expectations finally met reality.

Of course, it was too good to be true; it was all just a ruse. He was not a YouTuber, he indeed was successful in tricking and deceiving me for those five hours after which I though that success and fame and glory finally caught up with me and I would receive the spotlight. Still, I am going to retaliate and pull the prank of the decade on him… wait for it… in my upcoming blog…it is going to be legendary.

Those five hours did teach me quite a lot actually: it gave me a story to share with you readers; taught me that this is not a fictional world where in the blink of an eye everything can change for the better; and above all the most crucial message I learnt and would like to share with you readers tonight is that “expectations can meet reality… probably somewhere in the far vanishing point”. Do not lose hope as what you dream to accomplish or what you expect your life to be can eventually become a reality with a hint of determination and hard work. We can meet that vanishing point.

BTW: The name of my colleague is printed somewhere in this blog post… Do you have what it takes to find the name of his prankster? Happy spotting...