Expectation. A belief on a future, something or someone. We go through life with expectations all the time. Some of us expect to get terrific marks in examinations, while others are just expecting to just reach the passing mark. Some of us expect to have a full-time job by the time we hit our twenties (or even earlier), while others expect something different. It is great to have expectations. At least we know there's a bar line that we need to hit. Some sort of performance that we need to meet to have that sense of satisfaction or glory. Without expectations there might not be creation of goals or wonderful achievements in life. 

"Apart from a few starry-eyed poets or monks living on a mountaintop somewhere, however, we all have expectations. We not only have them, we need them. They fuel our dreams, our hopes, and our lives like some super-caffeinated energy drink.” 
― Tonya Hurley, Homecoming

The thing about Expectation is that it may or may not be real. Expectation can breed Disappointment when Reality does not meet it. Expecting an online item to be just the same when you order it, expecting your lover to forever stay as romantic as he is, expecting the people around you to act the way you want them to- they all have the possibility to only breed you disappointment.  I wonder as well, which is more stressful- putting your idealised expectations on others or having others put their expectations of you, on you? Thinking about it, relationships do sour when there's high expectations between just two individuals. Sometimes, in relationships- any sort of relationships (i.e. friendships, lovers, families)- expectations just seem to pull one party down and neither party could understand why the tension string is pulled. I guess the most stressful point of expectations is when you actually care about meeting other people's expectations of you. 

“If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask... with nothing beneath it?” 
― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes

Worse, in my opinion, are selfish expectations on people. That's when you expect everything of someone and have nothing of what you expect from you to that someone. Then you get angered, frustrated and grow a disliking for him or her because he or she cannot meet what you expect. What you fail to realise is that you did not meet any of their expectations either, but they just take it as it is and move on while you lament about how they fail as being your idealised friend/partner/lover/parent/child/etc. Better yet, is when you carry around expectations of what an ideal person should be. 

“When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist 

When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” 
― Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

Expectations effect happiness. I remember reading a Richard Lazarus stating that when a person goes through life with hardships and deprivation have happier thoughts about their life because of the positive expectation they set. On the other hand, a person that goes through a well off life think negatively about their life because of the negative expectation they use as a guide in their life. I also wonder if people are happier with lower expectations in life and unsatisfied people are like that because of high expectations that are rarely met?

“There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations” 
― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes

To some extent, some people cannot understand why on certain things, I do not set higher goals in life or have higher expectations of other people. They wonder how I could stay so patient when things do not go as "ideally" as possible. The thing is...

“I wasn't disappointed. My expectations had been met.” 
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

~Joanna