When you are sitting in bed on a Saturday night with the urge to go out but instead scroll through the countless Snapchat stories of people having fun with friends.... you get fomo. Don't have fun with out me!!!!!
When your parents send you pictures of them eating a delicious home cooked meal around the dinner table and you send them a picture of your over cooked noodles from the caf that you have been eating for the past four meal times... you get fomo. Can you send some of that steak in the mail, father??!?!?!
When you have mounds of homework to do but your favorite MTV reality TV show is on... you get fomo. What if I miss my favorite person get voted off!?!?!?
When your old soccer teammates are still playing soccer in college and you aren't... you get fomo. I suck at soccer and could never play at the collegiate level but you look like you are having so much fun!
When all of your friends have significant others and text them constantly.... you get fomo. LOVE ME!!!
When you're incredibly tired but your friends are just starting their night of fun... you don't go to bed because... fomo. Must. Make. Fun. Memories.
I can keep going.
Since I have started college, I noticed that my large case of fomo has grown uncontrollably. Being constantly surrounded by kids my age, when we're are all doing the same things, who all have similar interest, who all have interesting stories and live less than a building away from each other, my urge to be doing something social is consuming my life. By proximity and the internet, I know what everyone else is doing on campus on a Saturday night (granted there isn't much to do on a Saturday night in Decorah). I have endless options to be with different groups of people and even if I don't know them or maybe even want to be with them, I still feel like I am missing out on great "mems".
I think the biggest problem is that in college, there doesn't seem to be a separation between home life and social life (not to mention academic). When we were all living at home we could tell ourselves "well, I could go out tonight but I don't want to drive" or "I'll just sleep tonight since I live in a quiet house where I can't hear people laughing from three doors down" or "I'll just watch a movie with my parents because they are more fun anyway". You didn't feel the constant presence of 2,000 people all around you at every moment. There was a decision you made to be social or not but at college, the two worlds seem to blend together.
I know I always have the option to stay in my bed and spend the night cuddled with my laptop watching "This Is Us" until I pass out. Sometimes this is where I end up, but the social butterfly in me wants to be out and about. If I have learned anything from high school and living abroad, it's that great things go by quickly and even though you will always have the memories and pictures, it's hard to say goodbye when you are having fun. I think this is why on Wednesday nights instead of writing a 10-page research paper that's due next week, I go to each of my friend's dorm rooms and chitchat or make up a dance to "Womanizer". I tend to spread myself way too thin because I want to be involved in everything. By doing this, I breakdown on Thursday nights. I am overwhelmed then causing me on Friday nights to stay in the library for 4 hours. As I sit there alone in the basement with florescent lights blinding me, I am missing out on my roommate's play or an ethnic art festival and the so the cycle of fomo begins again.
I keep having to constantly remind myself of the balance I once knew: you are here to get a good education and also to become a better version of yourself. If that means taking a day off of studies to go run around outside, do it. If that means spending a 5-hour chunk of time with books circled around you as you prepare for the paper to come, do it. If that means going to bed at 8:30 because you know you will do better on a test fully rested rather than cramming and crying, do it. You know yourself and you know what you need to do to achieve this balance so do it.
Fear of Missing Out is a real thing but it's also something that can easily be managed if you just do what is right for yourself in that moment of time.
