Expectations vs. Reality

... That moment when your expectations don't meet reality, and your insides feel shattered. (Don't worry, we have all been there). 

*A few hours earlier* you're sitting there, this perfect image in your mind - you can picture it - your perfect scenario.  As things start to pan out, your perfect plan goes askew. Reality hits! The perfect ideal that you had in your head fades to dust and reality snarls it's ugly teeth. 

Thankfully, reality isn't always as bad as it seems (or now how you may imagine it to be). BUT SOMETIMES reality is even better than your expectations! 
It's like when you're climbing a mountain.  If you're planning to climb a mountain you know it's going to be hard, but you also know that it's going to be well worth it. 
So you go, and climb the mountain. 
The expectation of climbing the mountain exceeds itself - it happens to be more difficult than you remember (as you then realise that you're not as fit as you thought you were).  But then in reality, the expectation of reaching the top of the mountain is also exceeded - far greater than you ever expected. This time, reality is better than you ever hoped or imagined. 

A few weeks ago myself, Sav and Lesley went on a road trip to meet our new friend Becky in a little place called Macksville, just past Coffs Harbor. For a while, Sav and Lesley have been pen-pals with Becky and I have been 'friends' with her via Instagram. During the holidays Becky was camping with family in Macksville, which was significantly closer to where we live, to where she usually lives. So we decided to take the opportunity to finally meet her! 

Sav and I stayed at Lesley's the night before, as we had planned an extremely early morning. Although it did not go to plan... of course.
It was about 1am when we went to bed, still expecting to leave at 3:30am.  
It was dark, barely morning and (to my disgust) the alarm went off... again, and again. I opened my eyes, waited a moment, but no one  seemed to be up (or planned to get up). The alarm was set to "snooze" and we rolled back to sleep... when all of a sudden, the alarm went off! Wait! The sun is up!? *reality hits* It's 6am and we are only just waking up. Already our expectations were sinking. 

We knew there was a long drive ahead (approximately 5/6 hours), so we set off with high hopes. Everything seemed to be going well until we hit the highway before Woolgooga. Reality hit. We ended up being stuck in completely stopped traffic for several hours. 
By the time we finally reached Macksville, the travel time had doubled (arriving after 10 and a bit hours later). Our expectation of waking up early, arriving around 9am had now turned into a 10 hour drive, leaving us tired and ready for the day to start (figuratively speaking, as it was 4pm). 

With meeting Becky, I am sure we all had something in mind to what we thought would happen, but I don't know if it matched up to any of our expectations. 
Moments after we parked the car, Becky and her little sister walked up to us with beautiful smiles on their faces. The afternoon proceeded, as we went to the tiny antique stores and op shops and got ice cream! It was great and filled with all the joy that comes along with the consumption of ice cream! 

Later that afternoon we went to the beach, which was far beyond my expectations. It was stunning. We went for a swim in the ocean, which was enormously refreshing, and then went exploring (one of my favourite things to do). 

I couldn't help but take a few snaps. 

(She had the most amazing eyes!)

38.57. Becky, a photo by Genevieve Althea on Flickr.

(My favourite photo) 

We ended up camping with Becky and her family. Which again, exceeded my expectations. After a scrumptious dinner, we sat around singing Daughter and Paper Kites songs. My heart was so happy. No expectations could of prepared me for the afternoon we had. It was just beautiful. 

So in conclusion, never worry about whether your expectations will ever meet reality, because sometimes they will be more. Much more. 
☼