Disappointment.

We've all been there. You eagerly anticipate a new album after hearing a killer single, only to find the same killer single, surrounded by deeply unpleasant noise on either side. You think you've found the girl of your dreams, and it turns out she's actually a bit of a racist with a slight moustache. You stockpile mephedrone, and the government makes it illegal. You make a new friend on the train, and it turns out he's trying to recruit you for Al Quaeda.

Some of these examples might seem a little extreme to the average Joe, but if I've learnt anything it is that my name is not Joe. Disappointment is everywhere. It is part of our everyday lives. Some feel it more than others, some have more reason to feel it but don't, some have less reason to feel it but do.

Disappointment often comes from great expectations. For children, it is the guilty feeling of anti-climax after you've opened your presents on Christmas morning. For young adults, it is the realisation that perhaps you're not guaranteed a place at the university of your choice. It is the the sinking feeling when you open your envelope on results day. For adults it is not getting the job you said would never happen, but secretly felt just a little bit of hope. Disappointment is infectious and it is powerful. It plays and frolics in our deepest psyche, because it shatters our highest hopes and builds resentment for our loss of naivety. It can be disappointment in something, or worse, in someone.

The most soul destroying blend of disappointment is disappointment in oneself. When you make a mistake that you can't quite believe, and that you don't quite understand. The disappointment that leads to regret. The regret that makes you want to hit your head on something repeatedly, but you don't, because you feel too sick and empty. Disappointment is the kind of feeling that holds hands with guilt and fear and anger.

The ability to cope with disappointment can shape a person. It reflects their character, their stability, their maturity. It has become an obsession for motivational speakers, and the subject of historic utterances.

Disappointment makes the news. We were disappointed with our MPs. We're disappointed with the Catholic Church. We'll be disappointed when England are inevitably knocked out of the World Cup. It's everywhere, but we don't really understand it. To be disappointed in oneself is to feel guilt. Sometimes we need to feel guilty. Sometimes we can feel too much.

To put it simply, disappointment is when things aren't quite what you hoped for. But as with most feelings, it is difficult to truly define. And as with most feelings, disappointment will pass.