Fun & Famous

WHY FOMO IS TOTALLY OKAY

The workweek isn't even halfway through and my WhatsApp is starting to wake up from its Monday slumber. A Friday afternoon drink here, a Thursday dinner there, and the globe on Facebook indicates that the eighty-eighth event for the weekend has been created. For that last one, the chance that I want to go is minimal, until I see who is going. Oh, but I haven't seen him in ages. And she was also at that party-gone-wrong last time, how nice. In my head, the party takes on disproportionate forms. Because it's at that location and only lovely, fun people are coming (with a bit of alcohol in my blood, I actually love everyone). This is going to be one big party. Just imagine if I miss this. No way, can't happen. Do you recognize this? Then you have FoMo, fear of missing out. The big not-wanting-to-miss-anything. Everyone has a strong form when it comes to series, May is the FoMo'er on Instagram and I have it in real life.

But that week, aargh. I sign up for an evening with myself on the couch. A bit of filing my nails and an anti-stress mask on my skin (does this actually work?). I've had my share of forced smiling and I just want to watch a series and then halfway through realize that I've already seen that episode. Saturday in my calendar is blank, nothing, nada. I really need this. And yet, somewhere down under (just in my gut, you know) it nags. One drink is still nice, catching up a bit. Why do I want to be everywhere, even when that gathering doesn't even seem fun? Because that's also the case, I never leave at the peak. When I think ‘I never want to go home again’, then I really don't want to go home. And there you are again at the end, with an unflattering fluorescent light on your tipsy head pretending that you could have easily drunk that last one. NOT.

It's difficult to slam the door shut on all that fun and pleasure. Therefore, the reasons why it's okay to have FoMo:
– Imagine, you don't go to the Friday afternoon drink and that serious Harry from accounting is dancing wildly on the bar at the end of the night. How bitter would it be if you didn't see that live? How bitter, if you hear this Monday morning at the coffee machine? You don't want that, you really don't.

– It's incredibly good for you to let go. Let it goooo. Dance out all those meetings and administrative hassles. Or drink and eat, that's fine too. And that works, because you switch everything off the moment the friends, dances, and patatas bravas come out. Life is so much nicer when there's a party.

– Epic moments (forgive me this word, but that's what it's called) always happen when you least expect it. You go out for coffee in the afternoon and end up the next morning, with heels in hand and barefoot, on the first metro home. ’Good morning working person‘, such an evening. Well, and an epic-less existence, nobody wants that.

– It's never your fault that someone hasn't seen you in a long time. You are always part of the party. That ooooh-how-long-ago you just push back to the distributor without hesitation.
And come on, hello Sjaak Afhaak, this is why you can stay home once in a while:
– When you do go, it's really a successful get-together. Nine times out of ten, it's not as much of a party as it should be in your head. That dinner at that new place, where everyone will be next week, is just much more fun and bet you secretly thought that already?
– Can't you get off the couch? Just stay seated, because otherwise you'll blow through a hundred euros again and staying home is free. You'll be annoyingly fit tomorrow and just as rich as today.
– And further, I can't think of anything sensible to not lift those buttocks off the couch, because my form of FoMo is quite serious.

Written by Adeline Mans