Expectations
As we were putting together this issue of Mosaic Minds, I tried to imagine what types of submissions we would get. I'm feeling the thud of a fetus kicking me in the gut several times a day, so I was on the baby track. I have great expectations growing in my belly, even if my husband and I can't agree on a name for him.
Of course, I'm also terrified of the upcoming arrival. I fully expect to be quickly overwhelmed by the infant tyrant. Will he be colicky? Will I drop him? Are my breasts going to bleed? Just how badly is the birth going to hurt?
Jolene Dawe addresses this particular type of expectation in her fanciful short story, Expecting Monsters. I'm just thankful my labor won't be as traumatic as the labor she writes about.
Not everyone has baby on the brain, so I hoped we would also get a variety of other articles. Our contributors did not disappoint. Lisa Plantico Carlsson writes eloquently about her search for normalcy in Flawless. Sarah Artis brings us the all too familiar tale of a college graduate stuck in a dead end job in her article, Tick, Tock. I'm with Sarah. What happened to the promises our high school teachers made? We were supposed to work hard in college and find ourselves in the perfect job. As many of you've problably discovered, life doesn't work like that any longer, if it ever did. Do we need to adjust our expectations so we're able to be happy? Cylithria Dubois, our new Joyful Girl columnist, details her lowered expectations in her debut article.
No matter where you find yourself on life's road, I hope your expectations eventually become reality. It may be cheesy to say so, but the higher your expectations are, the more likely you are to live a full life regardless of how close you come to achieving your actual goals.
In the mean time, take a few moments to relax and read the latest issue that we've put together for you. We hope you enjoy it.