Expectations: Dangerous line between delusion and reality?

                      "If you except nothing from anybody, you will never be disappointed" - said Salviya Plath, while Sharon Creech said - "What I have since realized is that if people expect you to be brave, sometimes you pretend that you are, even when you are frightened down to your very bones." What I find interesting is that both have spoken about the same thing, yet how both are talking about very different human takes on it. Expectations are bad, yet since the time when we can think for our selves we are "expected" to expect! Ironical no? 
                      I have expectations from everyone and everything, which is very different from trusting everyone and everything. I expect the clothes I buy to look good on me, the friends I make to be true, the people I love to love me back, and above all I expect myself to be able to take care of myself and make right and hopefully rational decisions. What is weird about all of the above is that the human race as a whole has been warned not to expect, and I can tell you all the above stated expectations have been crushed, not once but many many times in the past. In fact I am sure that they will be crushed again in the future, but that hasn't stopped me from expecting. No sir, I still do, which is weird, because if I can let myself down, anyone can let me down and vice verse. 

                 That's the funny thing about expectations, they somehow connect us all. We all have expectations, be it from a job, a city, a person, ourselves or life in general. Yet, we all know, that we will be disappointed. If you Google expectation, you will get over 60, 00, 000 hits in less that 20 seconds, yet almost all the ones that I glanced at warned me that it wasn't a good thing. Weird given that it is almost the same as hoping, but with expectations one is considered to be "setting oneself to get hurt", but hoping is seen as a positive by almost everyone (including the most cynical of people!). 

                   We, as humans, have been set up. They teach us not to do things that come most natural to us, and which is constantly supported by most stories we hear, most things we read, most experiences of our life. A politician comes out to ask for your vote because he knows that he is expected to do so, to make promises, whether he can keep them or not is another matter of course. In the same way, most expect a holiday on the day of elections, whether they vote or not is another matter! 

                 I am more of a cynical individual on this topic, yet I am writing about it today because I realised that even though I am cynical, even though I have learnt not to expect time and again, I still do. I still do! Bloody ironical, the fact that it is such as holy mess, of human nature, of lifestyle, of philosophy and even religion. My confidant would brush this off as "subjective bullshit", but I think it deserves a minute's pause and reflection....

Are we too quick to dismiss expectations, or is it stupid to expect expectations to come true?