One night. One party. One event. One movie. One dinner. All things that will probably happen more than once but in the moment, it can feel like you'll never get another chance at these things. Making friends, in general, is hard and making true friends is even harder. To prove your relationship means something, we often feel like we need to do EVERYTHING together. Whether it be going out to a party, getting lunch, or just sitting in your rooms doing nothing. You never want to miss out on something really fun that could happen.
Being a college student isn't easy either. You have assignments, papers and the never ending studying for exams. Then a lot of students take on a part time job on top of all the school work. Those two things alone can be stressful in itself. Now add on all the outings and events with your friends that you never want to miss, and by this point you should be a big ball of stress. Whether you want to admit it or not, you and I have probably experienced the fear of missing out (or FOMO) at some point in our lives. Juggling the stress of school, work and a social life, how could you not? You only have four years and you want to get the most out of it by doing as much as you can. And if your friends do something without you, or you don't get invited it causes this fear of missing out, or maybe even feeling left out. Because if you were as good of friends as you think, you would have been invited right? It some cases, yes this might be true but more often than not whether you do everything with someone doesn't prove what you mean to them, or how close you are. Your friendships don't solely depend on doing absolutely everything together. At some point we all need some space, which is totally normal.
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There may be times that you'll regret staying in to study, or not going out because you had to work. But what we forget to think about is that our life doesn't just end after those four years. We have the rest of our lives to continue going out for drinks, to the movies, or for dinner with friends. And it's nearly impossible to make it to every event that will take place. There will be times that others won't be able to make it or won't get invited and you will. You'll more than likely tell them without thinking about it that 'they didn't miss much' or 'there will definitely be a next time'.
The FOMO is real, and you aren't alone in feeling it. The best way to conquer the fear is to take your own advice know that there will be a next time.
"Fear of missing out on something that matters, can make you miss out on everything that really matters"