Has life lived up to your expectations?

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I'd say I was slightly disappointed but I can live with it. I'm not sure my 18-year-old self would be terribly impressed by me. Then again, he was an arrogant prick so who cares what he thinks.

― Coasting along, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:18 (twenty-one years ago)

You know, my life hasn't gone like I expected it would, but that doesn't mean I've been at all disappointed. My tastes have changed, so I don't want the same things for myself now as I would have wished for in the past.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me twenty years to get that blasted silver spoon out of my mouth. Since then its been okay.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't minded!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

No. I'm almost 30 and un(der)employed. I used to be clever, dammit!

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure what expectations I had, but I'm very happy.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

TV has lied to me

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I kind of know how you feel, Mark. I wish I had more time to read the books I'd like to read and do some more writing, but other than that I'm reasonably happy with the way life has turned out.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

tiddely@pom.com is my favourite email address today - the fact I have a new favourite emaail address says I have very low expectations!

Come back bifferdyspacktroll!!!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

no, it hasn't. but then, they were stupid expectations.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I expected more people to want to fuck me. I should stop looking revolted and sick, prob

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh and stop being so ugly, that might help too

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know on my deathbed, OK?

― Spontaneous Existence Failure (kate), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Not only do i lack the ability to fly and see through buildings but everything is decidedly NOT made out of chocolate. I am also lacking a hollowed out mountain hideaway with trap doors and a television the size of a movie screen. other than that, everything is fine.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I did used to expect by my age the opportunity to live on the moon would be available, actually

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i am neither a pop star, nor a millionaire.

quite how i managed to convince myself i'd ever be either of these things is something of a mystery to me now.

(rearrange the above sentence into correct grammatical form, please)

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

wtf, I totally expected to be living on the streets, unable to support myself by now. I have no idea why this is since I have a great family and was always smart in school and stuff; I think I was just always freaked out about how expensive everything is and thought I'd never be able to keep up. Life is like a million times better than I ever thought it'd be, like to the extent I start thinking it might all be a cruel joke.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, it's all still ahead of me.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Argh, just find the "10-year old self" thread.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the not-being-a-pop-star thing kinda irritates me. But, you know, I gave it my best shot, and I got further than a lot of people, so you know...

― Spontaneous Existence Failure (kate), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know, I can't really imagine ever saying it hadn't. I don't tend to have expectations, I just try and do things I feel are necessary at the times. Goals are different from expectations, if the question was have I fulfilled my goals then yes I would say I have fulfilled some and new ones have arisen in their place and I do my best to achieve them too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Sortov off topic but reminds me of a time...

When I was about 7 (23 years ago) we were asked in school to construct models of what we thought stuff would look like beyond the year 2000. A prize was awarded for the best.

We all decided to make spaceships and floating cities etc, but one kid built a normal looking tractor and we all laughed our pants off at him for being so stoopid. His argument was that we will always need farming no matter what stupendous technology we discover.

The smug bastard won the competition.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

It's harder and much more emotionally demanding than little-kid-me thought it would be. And it's true what they say -- it goes by quickly.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but what about spacefarming? That would use spaceships and the like...

― Spontaneous Existence Failure (kate), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the not-being-a-pop-star thing kinda irritates me. But, you know, I gave it my best shot, and I got further than a lot of people, so you know...

that sounds like an expectation almost fulfilled - is that better or worse than getting nowhere near?

my attempts to become a rock star:
i bought a guitar. one of the strings snapped. i couldn't be arsed to get it replaced. now, it has vanished, as guitars do, if you look away from them for too long. the leprechauns of the musical-instrument world.

so, i think my expectations might have been a little more unrealistic than yours. those, and the ones that i'd have written a best-selling novel by the time i was 25. sometimes i wonder just HOW mentally unbalanced i was as a teenager. i actually believed these things.

these days, no expectations=no disappointment. that isn't the same as having no dreams, though.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

tractor

Too right he was. When I was 5, we all imagined we'd be travelling to the moon and back for holidays.

Now we can't even go supersonic anymore. (not that I did, you get my point)

So spacetravel has stopped also, what fanciful notions would we have for the future? Or would we all be making tractors in school?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I refuse to learn to drive a car. I am waiting for them to invent hover-cars or something equally impressive

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

didn't have any.

I'm not sure where my life is going and i really hate that.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm finding it hard to distinguish between what i expected and what i dreamt/hoped. by 25 i was 'supposed' to be a millionaire etc. - but i suppose i never really EXPECTED anything rather than just concentrated on naive daydreaming.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

WHY AM I NOT PILOTING A BIG ROBOT IN SPACE? HELLO?

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i wasn't expecting that until i hit the big 4 0 so there's still time

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, but I should at least be a ninja by now.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

http://ox.eicat.ca/~scarruthers/ilx/pope-dan.jpg

― LIFE IS FUCKING EXCELLENT (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't the world supposed to end when the first black Pope takes the throne?

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Pray I never go to the bathroom.

― (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, fuck's sake, I owned all of these:

http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/assets/images/avenger_.jpg http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/assets/images/assassin_.jpg http://homepages.tesco.net/~parsonsp/assets/images/usurper_.jpg

That has to count for something!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Armageddon there!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Pff.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

ew, the 'silent killer' type

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Life has more than lived up to my expectations. I have been very lucky :)

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Andrew, you do know that Mark Smith is not Mark E. Smith?

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

MES would be the worst ninja ever!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I kind of expected to become Madonna but in retrospect I am glad this didn't happen because quite frankly having sex with Guy Ritchie is like the most awful thing I could imagine.

― Allyzay, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Andrew you rule!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

While researching that I found a bunch more that I didn't get because I suddenly stopped (probably about the same time my Eddings fixation withered on the vine (IE far too late)).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

(See also Fighting Fantasy)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

No matter how much of a beating life has given me, and I have taken quite a few good kickings by the bastard, I still believe, like the stoopid romantic that I am, that it’s all going to come together beautifully. And sometimes it really does seem that way. Though there’s a hell of a lot of things that I want to accomplish and I’m a long way off getting where I want to go, if I found out I had cancer tomorrow, I could still look back with a certain amount of satisfaction and know that I really have experienced some maximum fucking shit. Has life lived up to my expectations; yes – it’s a slag. But it’s beautiful nonetheless and to be honest, I don’t actually ‘expect’ nothing no more though. I take anything life wants to throw at me right on the chin. At the moment, that includes some of the most fucked stuff I’ve yet had to contend with, but I’m still alive and I still have plenty of fucking fight and love in me.

When I was younger I thought all sorts of dumb as things. I thought I was going to be a lawyer. I thought I was going to marry the girl I was with when I was 16. I thought friends were for life. I thought Metallica were the best thing like ever. But as I’ve got older, almost everything I once believed has been shattered in one way or another. There are no constants and you either pick yourself up when you get fucked or you get squashed. When the highs come, I celebrate them, when the lows hit, I take it, and when the grind of the mediocre scrolls, I plot and dream. Most of the stuff that’s happened to me, I never ever would have expected, and the perverse twists my life has taken so far give me enough hope that at the least, the future is always going to be, uh, interesting. I keep pushing in the direction I want to go, maybe it will work out like that – chances are it won’t. So what – bring it on. Maybe there is one constant; possibility really is infinite.

― Alex K (Alex K), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I stopped having any expectations for life whatsoever when I was 17. Things started to get really harrowing..

By the time I was 20, i was amazed that i was still alive at all.

And now, I just take each day as it comes. I am thankful for having survived the storm; I have lived through the lowest point and have walked on by... I have extremely different expectations that most people - i don't want a family, but do want to live in a spiritual environment at one point, or in total seclusion to pursue further knowledge, etc - but remind myself that I am ultimately responsible for whatever happens in the first and last place, nothing or no one else. Also, having knowledge of your un/favorable astrological periods helps planning things immesely, as it puts you in tune with the cycles of nature, etc - but you knew i was gonna say some shit like that

― Vic (Vic), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck no. i expected to be an engineer building spacecraft and flyin' robots and x-wing fighters n' shit by now. i got the two degrees, but only an engin job for 3 months 'fore they fired my ass.

now i sit here and help the nation develop sprawl.

― Kingfish Beefstick (Kingfish), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Life hasn't lived up to my expectations, but neither have I.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I always have low expectations, but high hopes - this is particularly true at the moment, in a personal sense. It's best to keep it that way, I think, to avoid too much disappointment.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

It's more that I haven't lived up to my expectations than that life hasn't. Or sometimes it seems like other people haven't. Life itself, though, still's just fine.

― Maria (Maria), Thursday, 11 December 2003 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't have expectations but if i did i'd probably say no

― ron (ron), Thursday, 11 December 2003 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

*sigh*

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Thursday, 11 December 2003 03:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Ever since I took up smoking, yes.

― may pang (maypang), Thursday, 11 December 2003 04:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Life hasn't lived up to my expectations, but I've had some pleasant surprises along the way. And besides, I still have time left in my life to do all the things I've wanted to do that I also KNOW I could possibly accomplish. But as for now, I just keep on attempting to live one day at a time, one climbing session per hill or mountain.

― Tenacious Dee (Dee the Lurker), Thursday, 11 December 2003 05:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i expected that i was gonna find truly transcendent indie-rock and have some sort of alterna-hipster repository of the "good" culture that nobody knew about.

thank fucking god i grew up.

also i expected that i was gonna be involved in some internet/computer techno-fantasia of communication thing.

again, thank fucking god i grew up.

(haha although ilx actually qualifies on both counts).

my college self, around jr. year could imagine nothing more outlandish or cool than writing about britney for the village voice. which i actually accomplished, so now i'm happy to be purposeful but ambitionless. i mean it feels like that sonic youth song:
all your dreams will come true, all my dreams came true
but now, I have a bunch of other dreams

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 11 December 2003 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

this thread title mocks me.

― fiddo centington (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 11 December 2003 05:55 (twenty-one years ago)

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