Great Expectations

My greatest fear in coming to Ghana had little to do with uncomfortable living conditions, unappealing toilet facilities, or unusual insects. My greatest fear was that I would not live up to expectations.

I’m continually impressed by the caliber of people I meet within Engineers Without Borders. Their insights, critical though processes, ideas, and achievements never ceased to amaze me. EWB did express some expectations of their volunteers; although no one was outwardly demanding that I live up to all of the characteristics of every other previous remarkable volunteer. However, these became expectations that I imposed on myself – and more than anything else, I feared failing.

I’ve since arrived in Ghana and overcome my fear. This doesn’t mean I think I’ve surpassed all the expectations, and being a month in then it’s far too early to evaluate whether I’ve failed.

What has changed is my perspective. I’ve come to appreciate tall expectations to be wonderful gifts instead of a cause for concern. Expectations have the power to motivate me and push me to face challenges and achieve things I didn’t realize I could. There’s a great sense of empowerment in knowing that you have the ability to face challenges and work towards overcoming them. Whether you succeed or fail is somewhat irrelevant because either way you will learn valuable lessons about the problems you faced and about yourself.

So the next time someone confronts me with great expectations, instead of feeling fear I will feel excitement. And instead of losing sleep over the possibility of failure, I will simply say ‘thank you’, and get to work.