Earlier motto: hope for best, prepare for worst.

World has taught me: prepare for worst, and prepare very well, so that when it comes you aren’t knocked on your back and left wondering what that taste in your mouth is. Act pleasantly surprised when the best occasionally happens.

So what I’ve learned is, nothing really happens the way you want unless you work so hard, so strenuous, so effectively and completely that there’s no other option but for the forces working against you (see: the world) to get exasperated and let you be happy. Otherwise, if you give it any slack, if you leave more than the tiniest bit up to hope or chance or faith in other people, Murphy’s going to come along and wipe that glaze off your eyes with a bit of steel wool.

Stop expecting. Prove life experience wrong, and people will ask you who you are.