My life is pretty uneventful, but this past week has brought some real shockers. I did learn some good lessons from them about myself and others, though.
Posts: 7705 | Location: On Vacation | Registered: 06-06-02
Lots of things happen every day that I wouldn't have predicted, but I don't know if I'd call them surprises. For example, I didn't predict this question, but I would not say that I'm surprised by it!
I consider something a surprise if I didn't predict it AND it is something that I would not have imagined to be a real possibility before it happened.
Also, I have to say that the surprise should affect me personally. For example, I never expected nor considered it a real possibility that OJ Simpson would be declared not guilty, but honestly, that has so little to do with me that saying "I was surprised" is an overstatement. I was not emotionally invovled in OJ Simpson's case beyond mild media-enforced interest.
Also, I usually think a surprise is something fairly positive. For example, September 11th - totally unexpected. And although it didn't happen to me personally, I would say it affected me in a personal way. But it wasn't a surprise - it was a shock.
So, having explained what "surprise" means to me, I've only been surprised once in my life. How sad.
The surprise, by the way, was quite a while ago, when I was a teenager - the first time a boy kissed me. I don't remember ever feeling so completely taken off guard before or since!
Life in general is a series of slow changes, not wham-bang "What the heck just happened?" moments. Too bad. It would be nice to be surprised again some day!
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sarai,
Posts: 2244 | Location: In between | Registered: 06-03-02
quote:Originally posted by juanruiz: My life is pretty uneventful, but this past week has brought some real shockers. I did learn some good lessons from them about myself and others, though.
Juan- were they shocks or surprises?
Posts: 2244 | Location: In between | Registered: 06-03-02
Yeah, that's a good point, Sarai. Those clarifications were pretty much what I was thinking in particular I think; also something not imagined as a possibility before it happened, personal, and positive. But you really haven't experienced something personal, positive, and that you didn't imagine? Not even movies? Do they not fit? Either being surprised at how good or bad it was, or at how it ended maybe? Hmmm, and if a shock was something bad, would finding a movie unexpectedly bad be included into a shock?
Posts: 6529 | Location: Grayson, Georgia, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
Yeah, over the past year I have been surprised/shocked more than a couple of times. I supposed I learned a few things, but the lessons just weren't very pleasant. Pretty amazing though.
Surprised? Hardly ever. Used be I was surpised nearly all the time, now I am pretty much accepting of what comes. Not that predict it or expect it, it just doesn't shock or suprise me any more.
Posts: 4020 | Location: Leaving land, heading for the ocean | Registered: 06-03-02
