Many times in our lives people will tell us things that they can’t always fulfill. The feeling of being let down hurts but as my mentor puts “Only you can allow yourself to feel hurt”. There were many instances in my life where different individuals had let me down. One individual specifically was my father, Art. The man was never really in my life, the only thing I knew about him was the stories my mother and family told me about him. The first time I met him I was ten years old in Salt Lake City Utah and it was thanksgiving. The next time I saw him I was 16 and it was at my cousin’s party to send him off to Marine basic training. As I got older and wiser over the years I realized that sometimes our expectations of people can be too great and we can’t always expect them to live up to what we think they should be.

My senior year of high school I managed to save up money to go to Prom. One of my best friends was supposed to go with us but he ended up not going and I took his date to prom. We all went to a downtown restaurant to eat and then we went to our Prom which was on the Horn Blower Yacht. When we got inside, sadly she left me to go and dance with another one of my friends. At that moment I felt left out but one of my friends saw what had happened and we both ended up dancing together for the rest of the night. What my friend did for me made me realize that sometimes you will lose a good thing only to get something even greater. When the night was over I ended up seeing the girl I went to prom with and I didn’t even feel bad she had left to go with my friend. If she hadn’t have left I would have never had the wonderful time I had with my friend who danced with me that night.

I use to go to a church that I had attended for about 3 years. The last few months that I was there, I was living at the church helping maintenance the building. There were times when I was spoken to about my behavior. One day I was told I could no longer stay there because they assumed I was doing something inappropriate . At that my moment, I felt horrible and the accusation really hurt me because I knew I had not done it. What ended up happening was I decided to leave from California to go stay with my brother, for a month. When I returned I went straight back to the church to figure out why exactly they had kicked me out. What I came to learn was that it was a complete misunderstanding and the context of what I did was blown out of proportion. I ended up conciliating with everyone there and started returning back to the church once again.

In life there are minor disappointments such as your favorite sports team losing a game. Not being able to get the job you had interviewed for or not getting what you wanted for Christmas. No matter what the disappointment may be, we must always remember that there is always a silver lining. “It can only get better from here”.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31