Expectations, we all have them. We all have a preconceived idea of what it is we are going to be doing, what we want to do and how we are going to feel when we do it. How my experiences change me and the person I will be when we return are some of my biggest questions when it comes to my journey around the world.
Something that I have never really though about are may expectations of my travel journey, of course I have had them, thought about them, but never holistically. My expectations have always been about the countries or the places which I want to visit, never about the journey as a whole. I suppose to a certain extent one of the the many reasons for putting this travel blog together is to try an make sense of my expectations. I have been piecing together the reasons for wanting to travel and I am sure this is having a huge effect on my expectations of travel, writing down and telling the world some of my own reasons for travel helps me understand why I want to and what I want to get out of travel. What is exciting is that these expectations will change prior too, during and after a journey around the world.
What are expectations in relation to RTW travel?
A map of our future? Imagination? A plan? These points are all related to expectations but go no where in defining them, the dictionary definition goes some way to explain but is that relevant to my journey around the world, I found it hard to see the connection? What I know is that they are is individual, no two of us will have the same expectations of travel. An expectation unless voiced is also our own. They are of course altered and influenced by the people around us, their opinions and their own expectations of what we are doing contribute to them but they are ultimately, always our own. We look forward to what we are going to do, we naturally think about the effect it is going to have on us, in terms of travel this best describes our expectations, doesn’t it?
Expectations are not unique to travel, we have them in everything we do and some times they can even shape how we view an experience. If we have high expectations of something it often makes the experience its self seem less impressive or in the worst case can make these experiences seem a little dull or not worth it because we have built them up so much. On the flip of the coin we may have low expectations and exceed them. The latter is always the best in my opinion!!
I try to minimize my expectations of travel?
Why, because their is a danger that my expectations could develop into pre concieved ideas about that country and alter my experience once there. If this happens what is the point of travelling around the world in the first place. I could get a bunch of travel guides, history books and blogs together, take a read and I already know everything there is to know about that country. Everything that is except experiencing it.. . Maybe that’s it, maybe that’s what make an expectation. . . In order for things to be an expectation we need to experience them. The expectation played an important role in having that experience, holding with it a certain amount of curiosity, a curiosity that we need to investigate and have the experience.
Will my trip around the world live up to my expectation?
The list of expectations which I have in my head is huge, far to big to list. As a journey which is going to take a year to complete my expectations are open to my own interpretation and are continually changing as my RTW trip gets closer. They are focused on the return, I am going to embark amazing life altering trip around the world and I don’t know how I am going to change during that time. Will I want to travel more, will I want to settle down with 2.5 children. I Like to think of myself as living for the moment, whats important to remember is that these moments make up a life time. Every experience you have changes the person you are, not massively, subtly and most of the time in ways you do not even notice. The more I think the less I have expectations about who I am going to become, its more an excitement about becoming that person. I expect to be different is suppose. . . I believe I will be and welcome the change, without change life would be a little dull for me . . . so how can my trip fail to live up to my expectations, a bit of a cop out I now!
Keeping my travel expectations in check. . .
If you could call the above my one big expectation of travel then there are a thousand more which I don’t have the words to talk about. A thousand more that my or may not be met. To focus on them would be a mistake, I am going on this trip to experience, not to meet my expectations. Does it really matter if we do or don’t meet our expectations. No, the point is that we have experienced and if we are able to take something away from that experience we grow as a result.
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