Train the Brave, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 37Let go disappointment but retain your hope

I remember waiting anxiously for my final high-school grades to arrive in the mail. When they finally did, I was over the moon as my scores were well above those required to get into the university program I wanted to attend. When the formal university offers came out two weeks later my elation turned to disbelief: I'd missed out by one mark. I was gutted. While I got into my second preference, at another university, all my exciting plans for living in one of the residential colleges on campus fell apart and I was left to find shared accommodation through newspaper advertisements — a far cry from how I'd hoped to spend my first year living in a city far from home.

While I have to confess that there's always a part of me that wishes I'd had a chance to live in a residential college, missing out by that one mark set my life on an entirely new trajectory. For starters, I'd never have met my husband and I likely wouldn't be writing this book right now. But there's no doubt that when hopes implode without warning, disappointment can knock us down hard.

IT'S ALWAYS TEMPTING TO SEE THINGS AS YOUWISH THEY WERE INSTEAD OF HOW THEY ARE.

Let's face it — life is full of disappointments, large and small. Sometimes the best laid plans fall apart at the seams. Sometimes people let us down. Sometimes our expectations crash to the ground with an almighty thud and our plans fall apart at the seams. As human beings, we're wired to become attached ...