Phun-size Philosophy # 25 – Anticipation

Anticipation is basically an expectation that you have for a future event. By having anticipation it means that you have to have some type of information, hunch, or intuition about a given situation that is most likely going to happen or else your anticipation will be empty and almost surely accompanied by disappointment. I could anticipate that time travel and teleportation will exist in my lifetime but I have no basis for such a statement so if it doesn’t occur within my lifetime I will almost certainly be embittered by this. If you can anticipate something it means that you can somewhat know the future and thus prepare for it. By anticipating something, you can usually accurately predict what will most likely happen in the future and can possibly even mold current events to have the future happen the way you want it to. In certain situations you won’t have the power to do so like if you anticipate the release of a major blockbuster movie you probably won’t be able to change the plot line to your liking. When an event’s future existence is anticipated by the general public, you start to see countdowns forming waiting for the said date to occur. You can see countless doomsday countdowns waiting for that fateful day in 2012 anticipating the downfall of humanity into apocalypse. The thing is though are the situations of outcomes like that unchangeable or will occur the way they are anticipated to? Another interesting thing about when others anticipate similar thing is the discrepancy in how one’s perspective of how an event will transpire when compared to another’s. Almost everyone has heard about 2012 but not everyone thinks it will be the end of humanity. If everyone knows when an event will occur it helps form a schedule for which all parties involved will abide by. Because people know my birthday is May 6th, my close friends and families will hopefully anticipate it and realize to wish me happy birthday. : P With anticipation there will inevitably be hype that is accompanied with it. We all form preconceived notions on how we believe an event will turn out the second we believe it will happen. Humans then usually compare the original views with how the event actually turned out and then emotions are the associated with those differences. If you thought a movie was going to be terrible but in actuality it was great you are surprised and happy. The thing is that you can’t always anticipate everything and sometimes you will be blindsided by other events. It can leave you unknowing and unprepared thus you are more susceptible to making heat of the moment decisions and responses which might not necessarily be the best thing for you and your future. Sometimes though, the best things in life are unexpected and the days in which you anticipate what is going to happen may not always be the most exciting because you are fully aware of it. I think some of the best days in my life have been days when I go on adventures spontaneously and without warning.

-Allan Nicholas