Disappointment

The Oxford dictionary defines it as “sadness or displeasure caused by the non-fulfilment of one’s hopes or expectations”. A good friend of mine states that it is “the look a loved one gives you when you’ve done something wrong.” Personally, I can describe disappointment in a different way. Picture that moment when you’re sitting at school or at work and suddenly you hear the last few words you would ever expect to hear.

The world entered 2013 with the words “it was all one big lie”. These words were spoken by Lance Armstrong to Oprah Winfrey in an exclusive interview on his career after being accused of doping in late 2012. By December 2012, you could not walk a meter in the streets without hearing debates on whether Lance Armstrong was in fact a fake or not. Whether those who argued in his defence or whether those who suspected that the accusations where correct, the shock felt throughout the world when Armstrong confessed was mutual. Fans and supporters all shared the same feeling of utter disappointment at the thought that their idol, the one person who they looked up too, was faking the whole time.

A more recent story with a similar outcome is the current saga involving the late South African model, Reeva Steenkamp and her boyfriend, Olympian Oscar Pistorius who allegedly shot Steenkamp in the early hours of February 14, 2013. Trials are currently underway where the court will decide whether the death of Steenkamp was premeditated murder or whether, as Pistorius has stated, it was an accidental shooting. Pistorius claims to have mistaken Steenkamp as an intruder and had felt vulnerable as he is a double amputee.

This story too caused an up roar in South Africa. Stories are now being uncovered, allegations being made and rumours being started. Although the truth has been distorted due to media sensationalism, one thing is for sure - the entire nation is feeling true disappointment.

Nobody knows who to trust anymore. Nobody knows who to look up too.

If you used to look up to Lance Armstrong, you don’t anymore – nobody wants to look up to a liar.

If you used to look up to Oscar Pistorius, you are questioning that – nobody wants to look up to a killer.

Even something as simple as hearing the fact that Justin Bieber was caught smoking weed is a disappointment. How can we choose role models now days when you feel as if everyone who you look up too ends up making these huge mistakes? Everything in the media is sensationalised to the point that you can no longer believe anything that anybody says unless it is direct from the source.

To me, besides the obvious disappointments of discovering that the person who you idolise is actually a fake, or a “bad man” as some are putting it, there is another, greater disappointment to be realised from these stories.

What kind of a world do we live in that we can’t even have a public role model without the media “leaking” something viscous about them? What kind of a world do we live in that our role models become so obsessed with the idea of fame that they assume that they are above the law?  What kind of people are we that we no longer believe in “innocent until proven guilty”?

Yes, our world is full of disappointments – and that is the biggest disappointment of all.