Fear of heights, fear of snakes, fear of spiders, fear of tight spaces, fear of the number 13, there's a lot of phobias that exist in the world.....the Japanese (and I'm sure a lot of other Asian countries) have a taijinkyoufushou, 対人恐怖症, or fear of embarrassing oneself in front of others. A sad life, that, always worrying about what others think of them and whatnot.
One specific culture phenomenon (and phobia) going around among my generation nowadays (damn millennials!) is FOMO, or fear of missing out, which describes being unable to go to a party or social gathering but then being worried that one is missing a good time, with their friends or whatnot. This is understandable, as some people want to live it up, think that one should live every day like it's their last, and whatnot.
I have the opposite of FOMO. I have the fear of wasting my time. Don't get me wrong, friends! I (usually) enjoy your company and a good time is had by all, but I have an irrational fear of going somewhere and wasting 4 hours. A friend's birthday party could be 4 hours (depending on the night), a day trip to Orange County could be the whole day, and a Vegas weekend could be.....the whole weekend! I constantly worry about using up my time unwisely and not getting the maximum utility out of those hours allotted. It's not even that I'm worried about work or big, stressful events in my life....I'm just worried those hours doing something could be spent doing something else. It's gotten so bad sometimes I can never watch certain movies because I wonder if there's another movie I should be watching that I'm getting more enjoyment out of. Which, in a way, IS kind of like FOMO....I'm worried about missing out on a different activity. It might need a new name...like Fear of Missing Out on Unnamed Other Activity (FOMOOUOA).
Any prescriptions for this horrible disease, FOMOUOA..... I just have to take a deep breath sometimes and allot myself some free time every week, like Saturday night, put 4 hours of guilt-free, do-whatever-you-want in. Which is what I'm gonna do now.
Happy Super Bowl Watching! (For some reason I'm thinking the Sheriff, aka Peyton Manning, rides off into the sunset on his last game ever with the Super Bowl Ring. Crazier things have happened.)
Happy Chinese New Year! Year of the Monkey! I still get red bags (bags full of cash) from my parents every year at New Year's cuz I'm unmarried, which is kind of an incentive NOT to get married actually, not sure if Chinese traditions thought that one through....but hey, I'm enjoying it while I can!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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