Have you ever felt personally victimised by reality?

As if you saw this gloriously photogenic sandwich on a yummy-food app, the kind dripping with cheese, glistening buns, lettuce placed just-so, and then what arrives at your door looks like someone sat on it, soggy, cried into it, and then wrapped in shame? That’s betrayal. And not the dramatic Shakespearean kind. Heck no! This is fast-food betrayal. Modern. Relatable. Greasy. Disappointment.

Now, you might be thinking, “Really? We’re talking about sandwiches?” Yes. Because if there’s one thing that encapsulates the human experience better than disappointment in a soggy sandwich, I haven’t found it yet.

This whole expectation vs. reality thing isn’t just a meme, it’s a way of life. We grow up with ideas about how things are supposed to be. Call it indoctrination. School will lead to a great job, they said. Friends will always stick around, they went on. Your carefully ordered meal will look like the picture, they said. Spoiler alert: none of this is guaranteed.

When reality doesn’t meet expectations, some people just shrug and move on. They say, “Oh well,” and bite into the sad sandwich of life. These are the wise ones, or the numb ones if we are being honest. They’ve learned that sometimes, it’s just easier not to fight the chaos. They avoid trouble like it’s a pyramid scheme at a family reunion.

Me oh? I can’t let it go that easily.

I’m the kind of person who confronts these letdowns head-on. (Well, sometimes at most). If my expectations are a straight path through the forest, I will walk it, even if that forest is clearly on fire, full of emotional raccoons, and the path is blocked by a giant boulder labeled “LOL, Nope.” And I can tell you it ain’t easy. While others take detours or backtrack, I just keep walking like the protagonist of a motivational poster no one asked for.

And sometimes, it gets rough. You try to push through life’s nonsense, but you hit a point where it’s just… too much. Like you’re one bad day away from shaking your fist at the sky and yelling, “I just wanted fries with that!”

There’s a moment when everything feels like it’s falling apart, when you’re metaphorically, or literally, lying on the floor, questioning every choice that led to this moment, including the one where you thought buying a juicer would fix your life, or an extra inch flat screen would suit your down time. As if you have down time to begin with in this capitalism.

And you know what? That’s okay.

Relief, when it comes, is delicious. Like honey. It soothes the soul, quiets the anxiety, makes things feel bearable again. But just like honey, it’s not always what you need. Sweetness isn’t a solution if it makes you sick. Avoiding hard things can offer a temporary break, but sometimes, the only way out is through. Even if you get a little sticky on the way.

So, what do you do when things go wrong? When life delivers you the emotional equivalent of a flattened sandwich?

You laugh. You cry. You take a bite anyway. Because even though it’s not what you expected, it’s still something. You still have options my dear. You still have leverage, even if it’s just deciding to post a dramatic review and become the Yelp warrior you were born to be.

In the end, life is messy. Expectations fall flat. Burgers and sandwiches collapse. But if you can find the humor in it, if you can keep going, even if your shoes are untied and your soda leaked in the bag, you’re doing better than most people.

So go on. Take the bite. Just maybe have some antacids handy.

Till next time…