I want you to stop. Stop walking where ever you are, pause your music, and just look at the world. I want you to pause time for just a few minutes. We pass through this life so quickly that sometimes we miss everything. We miss the smiles from strangers passing us, we miss the breeze moving the branches and leaves on trees, we miss the world. While we are moving so quickly, we actually are not missing anything. There will always be leaves on trees to be blown, there will always be people to smile at us. That is an important thing to remember: there is no such thing as missing out.
I don't know where this idea of "FOMO" came from. The Fear of Missing Out makes no sense to me. Why are we afraid that we are missing out of things? If you think about it, there are things we miss out on everyday of our lives. I want to know who decided what exactly we have to do or be a part of so that we are not missing out. There is nothing we are supposed to be doing besides living and enjoying life. For so long we have been told that if we aren't doing something at all times, that we are missing out on life and all the amazing things it offers. We aren't. You shouldn't be doing something all the time because otherwise you forget why you are living and what you're living for; you end up not living for yourself anymore.
For so long we have been comparing ourselves to others and we have accepted this concept of jealousy. Everyday I hear people say "Oh look at her clothes. I wish I had them" or "I wish I was just like them. That my life was perfect like theirs." These phrases and more have been said by everyone I know including myself, I admit, I am guilty of being jealous. I am jealous of all these people who have these perfect lives and have all these friends, but since I started college, I realized we are all the same. I have a friend who is very wise and said something to me that we should all live by, "Just fake it until you make it and then even after you make it you can still fake it." She was someone I was so jealous of because she has all of these friends and has her whole life figured out. Knowing that she doesn't, I'm still jealous of her.
This practice of comparing yourself to others needs to stop. We need to stop comparing ourselves to these people that are just human; they don't have all the answers and don't have it all figured out. The only person we should compare ourselves to is us. You should only want to be like yourself. I know that sounds crazy that you should want to be like yourself, but you don't realize how many people want to be like you. You are cool, you are funny, you are loved by so many people, and you inspire so many people. I know it sounds crazy that people think all of these things, but they do. Everyone wants to be like everyone else, so why can't we just be like us?
We are all special and powerful and unique. I don't care if you are tall, short, young, old; there is no one like you. You are the most interesting person in the world. You truly are the greatest person in the world. You are inspiring. (The same friend told me this) There is always someone watching you to see how they are supposed to act. I never realized how much my siblings and my friends look to me as a role model and I don't think that they realize that I look up to them too. Every action and words spoken impact and influence someone each day. One of my friends told me once that I inspired her to be a nicer and better person, which I thought was so cool because I just act nice because I want to. I don't try to be nice, I just am.
You may know all of these things already, but I think that they are important for everyone to hear/ read everyday. You are important. You are influential. You inspire people. You are loved by so many people. You are a role model for someone and someone wants to be just like you. I know these things are so hard to believe, but you should try to because they will always be true.