My Family Members' Expectations of Me: A Connection to the Novel

    Although I am merely two chapters into Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, it would be no surprise to me if the novel had something to do with the lofty expectations of close family members, simple acquaintances, and/ or of course, the incredibly harsh society.   Since I have barely even started the book, my first blog entry will not be directly related to the reading; instead it will be a connection to the expected theme of the novel: expectations.  By interviewing my three closest family members, my mom, dad, and brother, I have gathered more of an understanding of the expectations that they have of me.  

    First off, I asked my mom what expectations she has of me as a high school student.  She replied by saying, "As a high school student, I expect you to continue to excel and do your best, while also continuing to be a very thoughtful person toward your friends and family."  Her answer did not surprise me whatsoever.  I've always been a hard working student, and let's be honest, clearly paranoid about my grades.  Although I will never claim to be perfectly nice and thoughtful to everyone around me, I do try my best.   

   To change things up a little bit, I asked my dad what his expectations of me are, past high school.  He said that he expects me "To be [a] successful, professional woman in a field of your choice." His answer also ceased to surprise me; it's abundantly obvious that those are my goals for myself, which helps to explain my paranoia about grades. 

    Later, I asked my brother how he expects me to act in general.  Although it took him quite a while to think of a response, he finally said "I expect you to be a little sister who never stops bugging me about everything."  I thought about not including his incredibly blunt answer in this entry, due to its lack of seriousness, but then I realized what he said was just about as accurate as it was going to get.  I suppose that he has credible reasoning for his response; I guess I've always been the stereotypical annoying little sister.  

   After interviewing my family members, I thought that it would be interesting to google "What is typical teenage behavior?" Response after response mentioned something about getting into trouble.  Whether the response was centered around drinking, drugs, or just irresponsibility, it was apparent that the expectations of a typical teenager were not positive.  That made me think.  As a teenager, do people who don't know me at all, expect me to be like this?  My parents, who have lived with me for more than fourteen years surely don't expect me to.

    Through Great Expectations, I hope to learn about how expectations come about.  My family obviously based their expectations of me on how I have acted basically all of my life.  But, what is the expectation of a typical teenager based on?