According to urban dictionay, FOMO, is the "fear of missing out," a phobia that I know the better part of the teenage population suffers from. Missing out on events, especially those you didn't even know about until afterward for lack of a better word, sucks. Especially with the rising involvement of social media currently present in every moment of our waking lives, not only do you know that you missed out on something great, but you get to see it replayed over and over again from different perspectives of your friends who were there.
Now I'm not here to trash social media, or take advice from those overprotective moms who politely require that "none of these pictures go on those internet websites you kids use because not everyone was invited!" I love social media, the internet, and sharing my life on the internet, (hello and welcome to my blog,) but that doesn't mean that it doesn't sting when I head over to check my snapchat stories and see a party that I wasn't invited or an awesome event I had to miss because of a previous commitment that I didn't even want to go to in the first place. It even hurts when I had to choose one event over another, am happy with the one I chose, but still see all the fun my friends are having without me. In that scenario it was my decision and yet somehow I still feel a sense of FOMO. How irritating is that?
This isn't random, this past weekend I was as the Washington Hilton for Georgetown's Model United Nations. It's kind of a big deal and almost everyone there is smarter than me and better than me at one thing or another, whether it be at diplomacy, or thinking on their feet, or even just writing position papers. It also happens to be the same weekend as this huge international convention for high schoolers that was located in Baltimore this year, and this year would have been the cheapest year to go because it was in Maryland. Every year they happen on the same weekend, and every year I want to go to both and know that I would have an unbelievably good time and get to see different groups of friends at both events. However, every year I choose to go to MUN because I know that in the long run it's the better option for me, as someone who wants to major in International Relations and perhaps even go to Georgetown for graduate school. And every year, I have a moment or two where I 1000% regret the decision that I've made.
Last year it was brought on by the surprise artist at the convention, Hoodie Allen, my favorite rapper of all time. A bunch of my friends got to meet him and even though I had seen him in concert before, I was still so angry at myself for missing it. Then this year, my favorite vlogger/filmaker, who I've been watching since eighth grade, and is someone who I genuinely look up to, Casey Neistat was one of the guest speakers and I had no idea that he was going to be there. I was probably less than two hours away at the time and would have asked my parents to come pick me up and take me to listen to him speak had I known, but I didn't even think about it until I saw him on a bunch of my friends' snapchat stories. Then I watched his vlog and saw people that I've known for years screaming his name and getting a chance to meet him, now featured on his account forever. That's when I almost cried.
And it still hurts, regardless of how I got to miss it, the fact that I wasn't there sucks. Yet, while it's tempting to wallow and hate yourself for missing out, it's important to know that you are not alone. I can assure you right now that it happens to everyone. Almost every single person that I know has also missed out on something that they would have preferred to have been at, and were forced to sit through the play-by-play of everything they missed as they clicked through every social media account they owned.
It happens to me (every year), and it happens to everyone else. The important part about missing out, is how you pick yourself up and put yourself together after it happens. While it's perfectly normal (and encouraged) to be upset for a little while, you have to take action. Last year after missing Hoodie, I bought tickets to his next concert the day they went on sale. I made damn sure I was free that time and got a chance to see my favorite artist. In terms of Casey Neistat, you can bet your a** that I'll be checking twitter for his next speaking engagement and might even go so far as to email/direct message him to make absolutely sure that I don't miss out again. So the way I see it, while missing out stinks, it's the perfect opportunity to see how much of a self-advocate you really are, and to take a risk that you might not have thought to take before, such as emailing one of your role models. :)
Thanks for reading, this brings the chat to an end, hopefully you made it this far because let's be real, it got way less depressing towards the end!
xoxo, LC
