Dissapointing people is a fact of life

'... the world is getting better and better, and better...' (Abraham)

Disappointing people is a fact of life
	From day one of our lives, we feel like we have to impress everyone we come in contact with. As an infant, Mom and Dad want us to walk, talk and be the cutest baby in town. That is a lot of pressure for someone who is barely a year old. Throughout our entire educational careers, we are afraid to disappoint our teachers by receiving that dreaded 'F' grade.
Our peers and friends expect us to be cool, hang out on the weekends and bend the rules for a little fun. As young adults we don't want our personal trainers yelling at us for only doing forty-five minutes on the elliptical, and then there is our boss who expects free overtime hours from us. It appears to never stop even after retirement, with children and grandchildren always wanting and needing. Letting our mothers or fathers down is one of the hardest things. We would never want them to think of themselves as a failure as a parent, or we do not love them. However, it is impossible to be perfect for them. This is not something to stress about. It could be something as simple as what you are going to wear to school that day. On the other hand, it could be something more complicated such as choosing where to go to college. Either way, they are decisions that you have to make. You are expressing who you are, or at least who you think you are. I know I let my parents down when I decided to go to school for musical theater, and even more so when after two weeks I dropped out of the program and switched majors. If I would have tried to make them happy, I would have let myself down. Our teachers and our managers are authoritative figures in worst of circumstances and mentors in the best. Either way, we hate to disappoint these people; they control our professional success. Regardless, it is inevitable that we will not be able to fulfill their hopes for us. We realize that we cannot finish a paper on time because we are playing sports or in the school play. Sometimes we cannot come in to work on a Saturday since the family reunion has been planned for months. Although academics should come before extra curricular, these activities are important for us to form social bonds that are a release from the rigors of academics. Careers and economics are important factors in life, but family is obviously more important and it is key to keep these as closes as possible. Friendships are often very complicated relationships. They can often be the most rewarding and the most difficult to maintain. Friends are random people that we run into through out life and somehow a bond is formed and it lasts no matter the distance or amount of time in between meetings. We are often asked to offer our opinion to friends, and we are scared to be honest. There is often a conflict between work and friends, family and friends or self and friends. We have to disappoint our friends to keep our selves sane, to stay employed or be there for loved ones. We expect our friends to understand, but sometimes they do not and there is nothing we can do I am not saying that we should not think twice about disappointing others. That would be reckless and devaluing our personal relationships. However, it is important that we accept the fact that we cannot please everyone. It is impossible, and it should not cause the amount of stress that we sometimes allow it to. Disappointment unfortunately is a part of life. If we can learn to accept it then it is possible to live a happier life.

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