Have you ever had serious period of disillusionment?

Hm, I would definitely give up on the fantasy muse. Either ask her out or drop it. However I would say keep dreaming and writing! I used to have this fantasy as a older teen that Hillcrest in San Diego was as close to an indie flick as it got. The older I got, the more I went, Hilcrest lots its magic. I learned that they are just businesses survived off loans and just a regular community with gay people in it. I loved what it served for me as a teen though, it helped me learn that I didn’t have to stay in the ghetto and I could branch out and escape my town. I love Hillcrest, I’m just not as frequent, I think I shall live there one day though.

Yes…I thought I could do the right thing and succeed in business school…epic fail there. Found my calling in Radio, TV and Film and couldn’t find a job….another epic fail. In the end, all it really took to succeed was to simply apply myself to the task at hand and now I have a tremendous opportunity to make anything in my past mere stepping stones to further the journey I am on.

I’m a perfectionist. When I always try being too perfect, I have to fail in some way or another.

And about the lady you like; just tell her, you won’t lose anything. At least you’ll know whether you should move on or not. Take the risk. Life is too short.

I once found out that my boss at a company that I worked for wasn’t honest. He was an educated, intelligent man.

I was very disillusioned. I almost felt that I could not go around representing the company anymore.

Shortly thereafter, the company failed, which got me out of that position.

Sure. Everyone, usually, goes through their own “Dark night of the soul.”

It can either be a re-birth or you can get stuck in the past forever.

Shift happens, don’t resist, remember, endings are always new beginnings. :-)

Disillusionment is most always, NOT about whats actually happening, it’s about waking up to what we’ve chosen to ignore.

P.S. Who says a muse has to be a human?
My muse is my goose. lol

Yes. I’ve had to turn my eyes away from love I could understand and fantasize could be mine but that I knew I could never touch. I’m sure you understand being able to eat, bathe and dream in words. When it came time for me to have something I could hold, I didn’t understand where my own muses fit in, to deny them or wonder if keeping them was a betrayal.

The disillusionment was to tell myself I could have all and assume my lovers wouldn’t be threatened. One person I thought was a marvelous match, the reward of so many years of near misses, that person left me because they could see I didn’t have boundaries I could abide. After that, I kind of gave up- that relationship was so intense and seemingly cumulative that it literally zapped everything out of me and I thought nothing else would come close again because I’d never experienced that sort of thing before. I am here today, several years later as proof old dogs can ever learn new tricks and that love is surprising in it’s variations.

@Mantralantis When you say you are going through a ‘seemingly senseless 19 year-old crush on a beautiful woman’, is that a fantasy of yours or in real life? Because I too had a period of serious disillusionment when I had a crush on a young woman years ago. But mine was in real life.

Relationships are the domain in which I have suffered my greatest disillusionments. Expecting someone else to understand and respond a certain way is fraught with hazard.
Ask most people who have had a divorce about the depth of their disappointment.
Tolerance and acceptance are powerful lessons – distinct from resignation – real love needs them.