Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hope

"With them, to wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect." --Jane Austen

Hopefully.

That word has become far too common in my everyday vocabulary.

"Hopefully I'll make it to dance this week."
"Hopefully I'll get ahead on homework today."
"Hopefully I'll see you soon."
"Hopefully law school won't totally kill me." ;)
Thinking about it literally, it means 'full of hope,' doesn't it? So why is it that whenever I say it, I'm anything but?

When I say "Hopefully I'll see you soon" it's because I haven't seen you in a while, and don't know the next time I will. If I know the next time I'll see you I leave off the hopefully. I don't have to hope, I know. Same with when I say "Hopefully I'll make it to dance." It's because I don't think there's much chance that I'll be able to, and if I thought I would be able to I'd say "See you at dance" instead!

I'm not losing all hope, but I'm also not filled with it. Essentially, I'm wishing.

In Portuguese, the word for "Hope" is the same word for "Expect." When someone is pregnant, while here we'd say, 'When are you expecting?' they say instead, 'When are you hoping?'

Because for them, to hope is to expect.

I wonder if my life would be any different if, instead of thinking of "I hope" as "I wish," I thought of it as "I expect." I expect to see you soon. I expect to make it to dance. I expect to get ahead on homework. I expect to not die from school. (Well, hey, the last one is true!)

It's definitely something to think about.

6 comments:

  1. There are many words people are far too fond of using. Hope i agree is one of those words. I think people do understand the usage of that word, though i do not know many people who use it daily.

    Sincerely

    Miss. Millie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful post, Ella!

    I definitely agree. We use the word 'hope' so often, without truly thinking about what it really means.

    It's interesting you posted on it, because the director and I have been talking about it a lot in relation to the show. So the word 'hope' has been running through my mind a lot lately. :)

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very thought-provoking!

    Going to do another post soon?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks girls!

    Yeah, we've actually got a few in the works right now...but both our lives got crazy. We'll try to post again soon!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just came across your blog, and I'm glad I did! You're a great writer. I never thought about the word "hopefully" that way...=)

    Bella

    ReplyDelete

Your comments make me smile!