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Jared Bedlion
Maplewood High School
Title of Submission:Expectations
Expectations are goals that are set by people. They have been in the global society whether civilization has realized it or not. From society-to-society or even from person-to-person, the expectations can change dramatically. Expectations of some people are greater than others just based on the community surrounding that family or how that family chooses to live. In higher socioeconomic areas, the expectations of one family’s child would be attend college and to continue their education past a traditional four year degree. A family in lower socioeconomic areas might expect their child to get a decent paying job and that would be sufficient.
As families progress, the expectations of the later generations tend to be much greater than of those of the generation prior to them. If children today were to go back and ask their grandparents what their expectations were, they would be surprised on how simple they were compared to most of today’s expectations. These presumptions are generally based on what was common and successful in that day and age. For example, in Youngstown, Ohio for many years, steel mills and other types of factories dominated the job market. The mills and factories paid very well for men and women graduating high school in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is where most money was made for people and parents were perfectly fine with their child going out and working because they could make a good living.
A prevalent trend for most families today is to encourage their child to go to college; but this trend happened over a tremendous amount of time. For example, my grandparents were encouraged to go out and do whatever they thought that they could to make a living, support themselves, and future families. When my grandparents had my parents, things changed slightly. My mother was expected to get some sort of degree after high school. The degree did not have to be anything more than two years but my mother decided to go for four years to obtain a teaching degree. My father, on the other hand, was not really encouraged to go to college. When he went to school, his main intention was to become a nurse and that alone was a huge accomplishment for my father. One day during a nursing rotation, my father encountered a doctor who said my father was too intelligent to become a nurse. The doctor helped my father sign up for medical school, reach his full potential, and exceed his parents’ expectations by a large margin.
My siblings and I have expectations that are set very high with both of our parents having gone to college and exceeded their parents’ expectations. My parents have created these goals because they know that the more educated one is, the better luck one has to be successful in life. My parents’ success has driven the expectation for my siblings and me to go beyond a four year degree, whether that be law school, medical school, doctorate, etc.
During the acquisition of these goals, we are expected not only to complete these goals but to do them well. My parents have a strong motive behind this ideology. On social and the mainstream media we all hear about the grand success stories of people that have made it on YouTube or in music. The media platforms make these successes more prevailing, when in reality they are not. When one truly looks into how many people have had these crazy success stories compared to the number of people who went to school and make a fantastic living because of their education, the success story number is very small. My parents have also reinforced this ideology by taking us on vacations to see what is out beyond Northeast Ohio. These trips taught and showed us what hard work could get us in life. In order to continue these trips as we grow up and have families of our own, we need to have a good education.
My parents also expect us, as their children, to hold ourselves to a certain standard, this means to be polite to everyone and carry yourself in a very respectful manner. My parents have wanted this for us because it makes it easier for us to meet and be able to talk to people and for it to feel normal. These expectations are those very similar to what I want to have for my children.
When I have children of my own someday, I expect my children to do the same as I did and go to school beyond a typical four year degree. As my children get older, they will expected to keep excellent grades in school and will be expected to conduct themselves in a respectful manner and to be cordial to everyone that they meet. I want this for my kids because with these expectations, if met, will come great results and I feel that they will be very happy with these results.
As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how expectations change with the times from community to community. Expectations have always been in our society and will always be around as long as people live on planet Earth.