What is hope?

Someone said to me the other day that hope is only a social norm that helps us to accept our fate and the fact that our lives lack any kind of meaning or purpose. My hope is just a way to sweeten that bitter pill. The same person also said something very Nietzsche-like: show me the fruition of your hope and then I'll consider it.

My hope comes to fruition every day. But how do I show that? Is there a way to communicate it or is faith (and therefore hope) an intense, but subjective and lonely experience?

I don't know how to be a witness of hope.