You don't know.

I'm coming to the realization that you really don't know what anything is like until you're in it, around it, or have experienced it. I tend to have this impulse to tell myself that I know how something will turn out: based on assumptions, past experiences, my infinite wisdom, etc. But the reality of life it does not exist until you are in it. Yet I continue to tell myself otherwise. Learning to begin living in the present moment (where life actually takes place) vs. living in my mind; where things are twisted and morphed into something different will be a challenge- but a skill that the quality of my existence depends on.