How does one learn to deal with disappointment? 

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for years. For me, disappointment is unlike any other emotion. Of course, it deserves and needs to be felt — but how do you cope with it once the initial shock has passed? With most emotions, it’s usually a game of familiarity (you know how you feel once you recognize the emotion from previous experiences and then “simply” experience it again) but with disappointment it just whacks you in the face and takes up the space that was reserved for hope and expectation. The worst thing about disappointment is the not knowing it’s going to hit you. Followed by the replacing other emotions that were initially in its place, combined with a sense of FOMO because there’s been a change you didn’t make yourself. The loss of control of a situation might also trigger something else that blows the whole feeling way out of proportion, especially when it’s a change that is irreversible. Some things are just OVER once they’re over and can’t be brought back.

One of those moments happened last week: 20 hours before the Eras Tour Vienna, all three shows got cancelled due to a terror warning. Over 150,000 people who came to Vienna were faced with disappointment. They had waited for over a year, built up excitement, spent time and money on making outfits, bracelets, transportation, tickets and more — only for it to all fall apart in a flash.

There is absolutely no debate about whether it was right to cancel the shows, but the disappointment turned into frustration nonetheless. Then something so magical happened, that I can only describe it as magical: The city of Vienna (known as one of the most unfriendly cities in the world, lol) welcomed all the heartbroken Swifties with open arms and offered consolation: free entry to museums, free ice cream/coffee/burgers/pizza, so many stores offered gifts and so much more. For 3 days, the entire city became a stage for kindness. There was bracelet trading through a tree in Corneliusgasse/Cornelia St, collective singing in the streets in the city centre, marches, and chants and dancing and all the stores played Taylor Swift’s music.

You didn’t need to be a Swiftie to understand something special was happening. I, too, just let myself soak in the atmosphere and experience the bittersweet beauty of this situation. It was peaceful and energetic. There was something so powerful in seeing all these different humans come together and celebrate despite what was taken from them. Kindness and strength went hand in hand, and it really was SO COOL!

So how does one learn to deal with disappointment?

I fear it might be cheesy, but you teach your feet to dance upon it: When disappointment replaces anticipation and joy, you sulk and then just replace disappointment right back — with excitement and euphoria.