Anticipating the inevitable

I am anticipating the inevitable. Continually re-evaluating my preconceived notions of what to expect in a foreign country. Perhaps I am concentrating to much on what will go wrong and not enough on the sheer enjoyment and experience of traveling to lands afar. It seems that humans have the instinctive nature of preparing for the worst as opposed to anticipating the pleasures and enjoyment of future challenges. I am a pessimist at heart (with a dash of optimism) and can only imagine catching malaria or being ripped off by the local Tuk Tuk drivers. Relatively speaking, I'm sure all will be fine. My time will be spent traveling through culturally rich regions and lying on sun swept, secluded beaches.

Part of me hopes I might meet a fine lass but the pessimism sets back in and I realise that I cannot expect to have a secure relationship with someone that lives on the other side of the planet - not to mention my utter lack of confidence with regard to simply meeting a woman. A friendly couple I know met each other in Thailand and currently live in Brisbane together. One German male and one Australian female. So it can work out under certain conditions. Under my own conditions I only see disaster in such a relationship. Once again I anticipate to much. I need to live more for the moment and to try not to expect to much. As the saying goes "expect nothing and you will never be disappointed.

Some how I feel like I should be more philosophical, but in reality it is a time honoured tradition of mine to over think my issues and cause distress to me and those around me. Maybe the real philosophy should be that I will never know what to expect and attempting to predict the future will only cause confusion in the present.