Partner with me!

My photo
Welcome to the real life of a full-time adventure seeker and part-time superhero. Will always love Chicago. Currently resides in Bangkok. Enjoys biking through the city and eating too many noodles.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

FOMO is a nono?

You know what sucks? Looking back.

Like it’s so stinking hard to be in the present especially when you’ve had such sweet memories and are scheming up exciting and compelling dreams and visions for your life. Man, living your best life can sometimes come with unintended consequences like missing your friends and endless reels of what-if’s and I-could-have’s.
So this last year I graduated college knowing I would move to Bangkok but not having a single clue what my time here would look like and I’ll be the first to say it’s nothing like I imagined. It’s hard and emotionally draining. The city is hot and crowded; work is hard and frustrating. Yet all the hardships can’t overshadow how much I’ve grown to enjoy (and even love) the overcrowded city, the humans I now have the privilege to call friends, and the job where I learn more about myself and Jesus on the daily.

Something I’ve struggled with since day one of being in Bangkok is FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome. Y’all can relate. FOMO starts creeping in when you see someone post an IG photo of a party you weren’t invited to or your BFF starts hanging out with her new work crew. Well imagine that if you’re living overseas and your friends are getting married/having babies/moving/working awesome jobs, etc. It's the pits and it’s the prime opportunity for all the ‘should-have’s’ and ‘what-if’s’ to start taking root in my brain.
“I should have stayed at the Club and helped my kids graduate high school”

“I could have worked harder to find a full time job in the city.”

“What if I got the job? Would I be happier than I am? Why am I even here when I just want to be in Chicago?”
All of these are real thoughts I have like on the weekly. And get this, nothing positive in gained by these reoccurring playbacks. I can’t change the past, I’m not in Chicago, I don’t have the job I wanted. I’m here in Bangkok, working at an NGO, making new friends, eating noodles. Like this is my life. And wasting my time and energy thinking about and wishing to change the past robs me of the JOY that is this present moment. Life’s pretty stinking sweet once I stop focusing on what other people are doing and accomplishing and start giving myself permission to be fully invested and present where I’m placed.

The grass will always greener, right? Or maybe, to take the famous words of Justin Beiber or actually Big Sean, “the grass ain't always greener on the other side; it's greener where you water it.” From my experience, when I acknowledge my past peoples and experience for propelling me to where I am AND cherish the new friends and adventures of this present moment, I’m able to pay homage to the things of old and fully live in the present moment. It's like I get to bake my cake and eat it. The best of both worlds.


I may never beat FOMO but I can sure can live out a life worth remembering. 


No comments:

Post a Comment