FOMO, the Struggle is Real

I live in a world where parties are abundant and events are weekly.  It's not uncommon to hear almost daily that a blogger is throwing a get together, or people you know are having a photo shoot, and more times than not...I'm not invited.  I wish I could say that I'm not the type of person who gets their feelings hurt or throws a pity party when I'm not on the guest list but...I'm human, I have emotions and feelings, and well, I DO feel left out.  These days it's called FOMO or Fear Of Missing Out.  And for me it's not so much the fear of it all but the feeling.  I simply just Feel Left Out.  FLO isn't the best acronym cause we all know what first comes to mind...so I'll just stick to FOMO.

Last night a huge event was held just a few cities away from where I live and seriously everyone and their dog was invited...except for me obviously. And ironically enough, earlier that day my 5 year old came to me crying because she got left out of going to the park with her friends.  How do you teach your child about not getting their feelings hurt when you yourself struggle with the same thing?  I did my best to not care about all the pictures I know I'd see later, or the giant swag bags of free goodies from all the brands that went.  I instead, sat in my bed with my cross stitches and my family and watched Harry Potter. But soon enough the snapchats came rolling in and I couldn't help but let my heart sink a little and feelings of missing out on all the fun came boiling up.

It got me thinking about the big picture of it all.  Sometimes in life we miss out on things.  That's just life.  Imagine if EVERYONE was invited to EVERYTHING.  That wouldn't make much sense right? There would never be feelings of sadness or missing out and all would be hunky dory.  But the truth is this, sadness helps us to grow.  It teaches us what's really important.  While last night I felt like the best thing for me would have been to be at that party and mingle with the local blogger celebrities and brands, what was really important was being with my family and learning to be a big girl and not get my panties in a wad.

Today I scrolled through all the pictures my friends took from the party and I was so happy that they had such great opportunities presented to them.  I may have missed out but they, I'm sure, made connections with so many brands and bloggers that will help them to grow their businesses and blogs.  That right there makes my heart leap for them.  Finding joy in their joy and knowing that their time to shine was last night, while mine might be a bit later in life.

I came across a quote a while ago that I've tried to keep in the forefront of my mind in times like these.

"I choose to surround myself around phenomenal people who are confident and secure enough to know that there is room for all of us to make it to the finish line."

If we could only see past the little parties and invites and view the bigger picture of what life would present to us I think we all would be a bit more accepting that not every event and every photo shoot was meant for us...and that's OK.  Our invites will come and our time to shine will be the perfect time for us to grow and flourish. It's that stick-to-itiveness attitude that will move us to where we want to be, not the wallowing and self pity.