spent-oystersThis is a little ditty about disappointment.
Specifically, that disappointment is something we all experience in life. Specifically, that disappointment, and how we deal with it, affects all of those around you. Specifically, because, if you think you can somehow change the fact that disappointment has struck you, personally, well, then, think again.
Disappointment is something we all have in common. Some of you may think of disappointment as a defeat.
I choose to think of it as an opportunity.
That’s right, an opportunity.
For, if we are truly the sum of our experiences, how shallow is the person that rarely experiences disappointment compared to the one who has cried into their pillow (more than once) before falling asleep over it?
Disappointment bites us in the ass when we least expect it. It’s like a lot of things that happen to us that on the surface do not appear well.
We are ill-equipped to deal with disappointment in an adult fashion, especially when it happens during the course of all our friends and/or colleagues telling us that the other, desired outcome of the situation—a win, was sure to occur.
Disappointment is pain. Most of us, with the exception of the masochists among us, do not enjoy pain. To the contrary, we avoid it at all costs whenever possible.
But this wasn’t supposed to happen
The thing that makes disappointment so crushing is the pure shock of its happening. It’s like death lite. And I mean this in the most sincere fashion.
This reads like it comes from someone who has experienced their fair share of disappointment. If that’s what you’re thinking, you would be correct.
new-oystersThere comes a time in the life of an individual that has experienced innumerable setbacks, otherwise known as disappointment lite, when a light is switched on during the course of a setback, or in the case of a major setback, otherwise known as disappointment, that causes said individual to steel themselves against future setbacks and disappointment.
If you get tired of the taste of your stomach acid in the back of your throat during these times, in order to survive and live your life with some semblance of dignity, you choose not to seek revenge at those who may have caused you this disappointment.
Nor do you try to convince yourself that an egregious atrocity has been committed against your sensibilities.
It’s easy for those who are disappointed to play the victim.
There are victims in disappointment as there are also surely victors. The latter exists not at the time of the disappointment, but in the coming days, weeks, months and years ahead, because the light has gone on in the person’s head who decides to stand tall and keep moving forward in the face of disappointment.
To stand still and dwell is not how opportunity flows.
Opportunity, like defeat, oftentimes comes when we least expect it. But opportunity has to be identified, looked for. It’s not as obvious and in your face as disappointment. Opportunities that arise during our experiencing defeat and disappointment can be the sweetest.
When we decide to say, “The energy I’ve devoted to this painful disappointment must stop right now,” we begin once again to seek opportunity.
Consider it an improbable case of looking for opportunity in all the wrong places of disappointment. You’ll find opportunities and future success stories, ironically enough, lay therein.
This has been a public service announcement from the Canadian Broadcorping Castration.