Please open your Netflix to Season 1, Episode 6 of Parks and Recreation.

Unlike Andy Dwyer, I am not referring to an actual pit, but rather the pit of misery coexistent with disappointing someone. Maybe an actual pit would have been more fun to write about. Less heavy at least, that's for sure.

OK. I've caught your attention with a Parks and Rec reference. Tada! Now I'm going to... wait for it... disappoint you! Hoora- oh yeah, that's not a good thing. Unfortunately, that's the only reference in this article.

It's true. I am a disappointment. If not now, then definitely at various moments in my past. Then there are all the moments that have yet to come. Who am I a disappointment to? Good question. I know I've disappointed my parents before. I've probably disappointed grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. Need I say more?

While it may seem gloomier than my typical subject, I assure you the best is yet to come--the best meaning the connection to growth... not something more macabre. That would kind of defeat the purpose of intentionally writing something moderately uplifting.

Personally, I would much rather have someone yell at me, have them be completely pissed off with veins bulging out of their forehead and a red face than to disappoint them. There is something dreadfully more solemn present in the very concept of disappointment. You have failed to meet someone's expectations, usually on a basis of character or values. If you have never had someone say to you "you are better than this"... consider yourself lucky.

You may feel disdain for yourself for having committed whatever atrocity or minor incident led someone to be disappointed in you. You may think to yourself: "everything hurts and I'm dying." This is only natural, and yes, I lied about only one reference. Psych!

It's not something you can overcome as easily than angering another individual. When someone is upset, an apology, if provided genuinely, is often suitable enough to mitigate the situation, mollifying whatever negative emotions the upset individual had previously maintained. Disappointment? Not so much. That takes time to erase. Sure, apologies never hurt, but to regain someone's respect, trust, or whatever else you damaged could take years. Sometimes it never heals.

As is true with most people, I have done things I am not proud of. Some of those acts still trouble me to this day, regardless of the age I committed them. In that regard, I suppose you could say I am disappointed in myself. And that is something that will never truly go away. Yes, I am not the same person I was then, and for that I am grateful, but it still stands that I allowed whatever mishap to take place. Thus my disappointment does not disappear.

Why am I saying all this? Though in tune with my normal self-depreciative sense of humor, there is no punch line waiting for you at the end of this article. Nor is there a million dollar check or puppies. Sorry.

Reflection is key to growth. Anyone who tells you otherwise simply has not grown. You can look around you for answers all you want, but until you turn your search inwards, you will come up empty-handed.

They say to take everything with a grain of salt. So I say save up that salt. Eventually, you'll have enough to go around the rim of a margarita. A hypothetical margarita that lacks tequila, lime juice, and tangible form. But really, if every moment or conversation is held onto and with the notion that people can change if they know how, that salt will add up.

So you've disappointed someone. Big whoop. I mean, really, it is kind of a big whoop because you very well may have destroyed your relationship with that person to an extent that cannot be repaired, but that isn't what I'm getting at. Take note of what they say. Listen to them and hear each ounce of truth, harsh or otherwise. Feeling sucky? Good. It's working.

Now utilize these words. Turn them into something beautiful. Like a butterfly, but the butterfly is you. Sorry, I've been wanting to rewatch A Bug's Life lately.

If you have wronged someone, even yourself, fix it. Learn from your mistakes and grow in the aftermath. The feeling of disappointing someone should be strong enough to deter you from ever repeating those mistakes again. A parent crying on account of you behaving beneath your character is quite possibly the most underutilized forms of torture. It is pain, and yet, it is inexplicably more.

The great thing about disappointment is that it teaches more than any book ever can. You find your true self in those moments; when you stop to question who you are, suddenly your character is unearthed.

Brush off that dirt and take on the next day believing in yourself, believing that you are not the person that caused that pain in others' hearts but instead a person seeking improvement. Recovery is a strong word, but it fits here. In the realm of disappointment, you often have to claw your way back out of that pit. Do so with pride, but not too much pride.

We all make mistakes. We all inevitably, intentionally or not, end up in that pit, scrambling around with our own self-doubts and internalized shame. But the climb is possible. Reach until there is no higher point to reach; emerge a better person.

Thank you.