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To be clear, transformation ie the first onset of transformation is obviously and always unexpected. Transformation is a space / event (ie a space slash event as Werner Erhard may have said), an occurrence, a showing up which happens out of time and out of the norm.
Consider this for a moment: if transformation was expected and was the norm, everyone would be transformated by now. So, almost by definition, the first onset of transformation is never really expected, and it's always outside the norm.
Even though that's true, it's not what I'm referring to here by saying my initial experience of transformation came with something else which to me was completely and totally unexpected. What for me was unexpected about transformation is how ordinary it really is, how everyman it turns out to be.
It's a paradox. The words "unexpected" and "ordinary" aren't often used in the same sentence. Yet here it is: what's most unexpected about transformation for me is how ordinary it is. That's it. That's what's unexpected. Given its poignancy, given its ecstasy, given its profundity, given its sublimeness, given its awesomeness, given its remarkableness, given its Zen, ... given it's all of the above, it turns out transformation is really god-damned ordinary after all.
In my past, in my particular hejira, there were various ventures along so-called paths, each of which have, by the way, their own particular grandiose, significant term used to designate the expected result of being on that path: salvation, self realization, enlightenment, satori etc, "significant" implying each term is steeped richly and impenetrably in belief, interpretation, meaning, and righteousness.