FOMO

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." ~John Burroughs

Last week, I had lunch with a friend of a friend who I just met.  Within 15 minutes, she said to me, "Oh, you have FOMO.  It's a disease.  I have it too."  And like that, I was diagnosed.  I'm am lifelong sufferer.  As far back as I can remember, I've had this problem.

What is FOMO, you ask?  Well, the full name is Fear Of Missing Out.  I can't stand the idea that something fun could happen and I might miss it.

It's the reason that I do things like take two months off of life and gallivant around Eastern Europe.  And spend way too much money on last minute flights for birthday water skiing trips.  It's why I hate missing weddings or concerts or girls' weekends.  Why I spend every winter on the side of a mountain with the same crazy people.  The reason I run half marathons and have 30 by 30 lists and love singing karaoke.  The reason I spend a ridiculously large amount of my disposable income going places like Stillwater, Oklahoma and South Bend, Indiana.  It's what motivated me to jump off a 9 foot wall onto a football field and off a Tarzan platform in a jungle in Costa Rica.  It's why I go to birthday parties and engagement dinners. 

There are a few side effects, like a depleted bank account and running off of entirely too little sleep pretty much all the time.  And I'm pretty sure there is no cure.  But it's the opposite of fatal.  Because instead of killing me, it's making me live.  And I have to admit, I am enjoying every minute!