Hank: Good morning, John! And good morning to Benjamin Baxter.

BAAAAHHHHH!

This is your very late, your very own Vlogbrothers video Project for Awesome (P4A) perk. Sorry it's so late.

You, in your thing, you said, all you said, is that you wanted me to surprise you. So I hope that I surprised you.

Surprise is basically shock, but a little bit more positive, I guess? 'Cause you know, we wouldn't say that you were surprised by, like, a...guy walking in the bank with a gun. That would be negative, so you would be shocked, you would be, uh, terrified, scared, um, but not surprised, I don't think.

So there's a positive connotation to a thing happening that you don't expect. Considering how often we are surprised, it is a little bit surprising, haah!, that we don't, uhh, just get over it. Like we just don't stop expecting stuff. I mean a lot of it we don't stop expecting because surprise is important, I feel like it's like a pleasant emotion, it's a very important part of humor. And I think that if we lived our lives in a constant state of expecting the unexpected that we would basically be exhausted all the time.

We need to have expectations and have them basically be fulfilled. Like I want to continue sticking to the ground. I want the people I love to continue acting like the people I love. A few years ago here in Montana we had an earthquake and I, having grown up in Florida, had never experienced an earthquake before and that was REALLY WEIRD. The earth is supposed to be the thing that DOESN'T MOVE. Right? It's like the stablest thing on Earth. It's Earth.

And that it could just like pick up and start shaking one day--I don't want to be expecting that all the time. I actually didn't believe--I thought I was hallucinating until a friend called me and was like, "Did you feel that?"

You can even surprise yourself! Which is a weird concept, to think  I can do something that I myself I don't expect myself to do. Which I think speaks to the marvelous complexity of the human condition and the world that we operate inside of, and, and I love that about life.

So yes, we expect certain things out of the world, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to function at all and even though I started this video out...

BAAAAHHHHH!

...by surprising you, I can still, just moments later, surprise you in exactly the same way again. 'Cause you expected me just to be Vlogbrothers and not screaming at you. 

Benjamin Baxter, thank you for participating in the Project for Awesome (P4A), especially at such a high level, and you (pointing) will see me on Tuesday.