great expectations

Most of her dates were disappointing. Like biting into a cookie expecting to find a chocolate chip, only to find a raisin.

I jotted down this quote in my journal years and years ago. It must have been from some book I was reading at the time, but after all this time has passed I can't even begin to remember what it was, who it was by or what it was about. (Besides maybe a single girl, it would appear.) Apparently it hit a cord with me at the time and resonated yet again when I ran across it last night.

We're always expecting. Expecting things to happen a certain way, to be a certain way, to act a certain way, to taste a certain way. Expecting that delicious looking cookie in front of us to be filled with indulgent chocolate chips, not healthy raisins. We just can't help it. We see something or someone and our mind just starts wondering. Starts supposing. Starts expecting.We probably do this most often when it comes to dating. Anyone who's spent any time being single would have to agree. First impressions are lasting we hear time and time again. We judge people unfairly (whether it's to their benefit or detriment) without even thinking twice.

We learn, often times the hard way, that people are who we expected them to be. Who we imagined them to be at their worst.

But every once in a blue moon someone surprises you. Someone has a way of surpassing your expectations of them. And it's those times, however rare, that keep us holding on to hope.

It's those times that keep us reaching into the cookie jar.