Quotes About Expectations

Sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.

Because you can never go from going out to being friends, just like that. It's a lie. It's just something that people say they'll do to take the permanence out of a breakup. And someone always takes it to mean more than it does, and then is hurt even more when, inevitably, said 'friendly' relationship is still a major step down from the previous relationship, and it's like breaking up all over again. But messier.

So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.

But that was the problem with having the answers. It was only after you gave them that you realized they sometimes weren't what people wanted to hear.

It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself.

The truth was I knew, after all those flat January days, that I deserved better. I deserved I love yous and kiwi fruits and warriors coming to my door, besotted with love. I deserved pictures of my face in a thousand expressions, and the warmth of a baby's kick beneath my hand. I deserved to grow, and to change, to become all the girls I could be over the course of my life, each one better than the last.

The truth was, there was no way everything could be the Best. Sometimes, when it came to events and people, it had to be okay to just be .

Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and get it over with.

We both know the limits of this relationship. It's understood. And as long as we're both comfortablewith that, nobody get's hurt. It's basic.' ~Oliva, pg 374

She's a baby, Maggie told me. Babies wear pastels. Says who? I asked. ... Society. The same society, I might add, that dictates that little girls should always be sugar and spice and everything nice, which engourages them to not be assertive. And that, in turn, then leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to eating disorders and increased tolerance and acceptance of domestic, sexual, and substance abuse.

It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself

You get used to people being a certain way; you depend on it. And when they surprise you, for better or worse, it can shake you to your core.

What, I said, is that a crime here or something? Like only buying one thing at the Gas/Gro?

All I want is someone decent." She sniffled again, her eyes filling with tears. "You know? Kind. Good. Like in all those love stories I'm such an expert on. It can't just be fiction. It can't. Those guys are out there, I know it. I just can't find them." Those guys were out there. In fact, one was watching us right now, somewhere nearby. Keeping his distance, knowing she needed me to herself right then, but still, just outside the door.

Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd always tell her, why can't I do both? Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?

You get what you give, but also what you're willing to take.

That sucks, though, Wes said finally, his voice low. You're just setting yourself up to fail, because you'll never get everything perfect. Says who? He just looked at me. The world, he said, gesturing all around us, as if this party, this deck encompassed it all. The universe. There's just no way. And why would you want everything to be perfect, anyway? I don't want everything to be perfect, I said. Just me, I thought. Somehow. I just want—

After loving someone you couldn't depend on, you realize how important it is to trust someone will do what they say. It's such a simple thing, not to promise what you can't or won't deliver. But my mom had done that all the time.

Please. She sighed. 'Can't a girl have high standards? I don't want an ordinary boy.

People are not uniform Emaline. There is no such thing as any other girl. So stop holding yourself to some ridiculous high standard, would you please?

Having no expectations for some people in your life can be depressing, if not devastating. But with others, it's what is necessary. The hard part is not just figuring out which one applies, but accepting it.

Was I sad about the way things stood, and did I wish, still, the spring and even this summer had gone differently? Yes. But the anger, somehow had been lifted, leaving behind a sense that I could deal with whatever came next for us, even if it was nothing at all. Which sounds bad, I knew. Having no expectations for some people in your life can be depressing, if not devastating. But with others, it's what is necessary. The hard part is not figuring out which one applies, but accepting it.

Can't a girl have high standards? I don't want an ordinary boy.

It didn't matter that I'd done none of those things. With shame, like horseshoes, proximity counts.