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.