Expectations Vs Reality- Part 1
Many a times, most of us have had a time when we do expect either from our selves or people around us- parents, lovers, children, employees/employers, professionals, business partners, leaders and everyone whether young or old. You and me agree that we have been disappointed not once or twice by the reality that hits us when the expectations are not met.
Have you tried to think through what expectations are..? Of course you do know what that word means. Then, why do you make expectations a reality in your world of thought/ in your mind?
Okay,Let us get back to the drawing board. By definition, Mr google says that an expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case. It is a state of anticipation, looking forward to something or waiting for something. This could be positive or Negative.
who creates the world of expectations? This is me and you, which we later impose on someone else in our minds.
For example
Parents toil hard to educate their children and after they have successfully studied, gotten jobs; they expect to be taken care of. some go as far as expecting Children to take full charge of any expense in their home.
when a teacher has done his/her part to teach learners, he expects them to pass
when we love people,we expect them to love us back
when people give, they expect to receive.
Every employer expects his/her employees to perform to the companies’ expectations to yield expected results- the more reason for bootcamps, trainings, 360 appraisals and so much more including good remuneration.
And when we pray, we live in expectation/ belief that our prayers are heard and we await answers. we shall explore more examples and stories in other parts of this topic.
what are some of the expectations you have had before but only to end up being hurt, disappointed, disturbed, unhappy and angry? Do you want to list them down? Do you now want to do a reflection on what gave you the mandate to expect that much which didn’t yield a fruit according to you? You actually fell in a trap of expectations Vs reality. So sorry that reality hit you hard and your happiness was robbed.
It gets hard though when it is a matter of life and death. Here, one has no alternative but to expect or look forward to everyone doing their part to save a life especially the professionals.
As Christmas clocked in, my family and I fell into a trap of expectations being a reality in our world of thoughts. Mum RIP fell sick — she could hardly breath or even talk. The fact that we were far, coordinating on phone with the people that were taking care of her at home was the only option to get her to the nearest hospital for treatment in Mbarara. Our efforts to have her meet a doctor in the shortest time possible wasn’t in vain because of the power of networks- friends were so much of help. This also hit me hard that in my country, you can only survive for a day/ be attended to in hospitals if you know someone who knows someone that knows someone in that very health facility (I hope you understand this chain!). This is how we were connected to a doctor that received her after a long explanation of who we were. All seemed well after she was out of danger in the first 4 hours of first aid treatment not until the lab test results were presented to us. Thanks be to God we had arrived.
The expectation was, after the diagnosis which informed us that she was anemic and had an infection , the medical team would start on the treatment. we waited for the team/doctor to administer the treatment till we could wait no more; we head hunted them to explain why nothing is being done- for your information,this is the second day in hospital. The doctor assigned to us was very unfriendly (the expectation is that he should have been friendly), his code of conduct was a nightmare.He could hardly listen to us who had the medical care history of Mum’s life which he needed before going ahead to do a litany of checkups he had wanted. He literally started exchanging with us as we tried to explain to him with evidence of the medical forms of the previous specialists visited.He later claimed that he could only trust his hospital laboratory results. One would wander why a doctor gets to such a level with care takers in the presence of the patient- expectations Vs reality. Well, we tasted the bitter broth but hang in there to see change in conduct which was in vain.
At a critical time when professionalism was highly expected, reality faced us like a hungry lion; Customer care was zero, patient monitoring was left to nurses who cared to know our situation; psycho-social and emotional support to both the patient and the caretakers was in negatives, the proposed blood transfusion was done after a thousand reminders which unfortunately slowly swept the hope of Mum’s recovery till she went cold to no life. we became “a problem” to the doctor as we sought clarification, what infection it was; as to the doctor , caretakers are/ were not entitled to any information about their patient. Anyway, it was a devastating moment(s). we exposed ourselves to very high expectations of professionalism from the hospital side and Yes reality hit us. we shall live to remember each hour that passed.
WE MISS YOU MUM!
REST IN PEACE!
To the Medical professionals, please forgive us that we always have very high expectations in you at all times because we are only human.
We need you, you need us. Let us strike a balance!
