I sometimes hung out with a fella who felt like he could never miss out on ANYTHING.
Even if he had worked a 14-hour day and was exhausted, if he heard we were going to get a few drinks, he’d show up.
I’d chalk up his behavior to “fear of missing out”, or FOMO.
And I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about…
People took to AskReddit to talk about things they did because of FOMO.
Let’s see what went down.
1. Eat it!
“When I was a kid the cool, older neighbor kids told me to eat grass.
They told me they all did and I would be cool if I did. So I picked a big handful and ate it while everyone laughed at me. Afterwards it came out that none of them had, in fact, ate any grass at all, and, as it turns out, none of us knew what would happen if one were to eat grass.
So I ran home where my old man was in the backyard spraying something with a garden hose or some s**t.
I said “hey dad what would happen if somebody ate a big handful of grass?”
He replied, absolutely deadpan “tell me you didn’t eat grass.”
I said “well no but somebody else did and I was just…”
He said, “Gristle… Tell me you didn’t eat grass…”
Tears started welling up and I said “well I was running real fast and I fell and when I fell my mouth landed on a clump of grass and my mouth closed on it and I accidentally swallowed a whole bunch of it and… Am I gonna d**?!?”
He said “Probably. But go in and drink as much water as you can stand and then I will take you to the hospital”
I ran inside and drank as much water as I could and rushed out to the van where the old man was waving me into the open door. We flew out of the neighborhood, screaming towards the hospital while I cried in the back seat.
Finally, we got to the liquor store down the street from the hospital where the old man said, “nah I’m just messing with you. You’ll be fine.”
And he went in and bought beer and we drove home.”
2. Very cool.
“For my 30th birthday I tried 30 new things.
The list included a pedicure and manicure, fancy Starbucks drink, driving a red Porsche, gambling at the casino.
It was a crazy fun day but I learned that I have a great life without all that stuff.”
3. Just go for it.
“I asked a girl that works at the pet store by my house if she had a boyfriend this week.
She does, but I knew I’d never forgive myself if i didn’t ask. I said “Oh, he’s a lucky guy,” and moved on.
I’ve been too afraid to ask before and that sucks.”
4. Had to do it.
“Paragliding in Interlakken, Switzerland.
I still have a fear of heights, but all my friends were doing it so I just had to join.”
5. That’s brave.
“I joined my friends in auditioning for the musical in senior year of high school because I just happened to be friends with a lot of theatre kids.
Ended up with a supporting role including a duet and a decent amount of lines.
I still consider it one of the best decisions I ever made. It was a crazy amount of fun.”
6. Join us.
“I ate ten ants to join my brother’s club.
He said I could only join if I ate them.
So I did. And then he disbanded the club.”
7. No fun.
“One of those muddy races.
Got a skin infection and sun poisoning.”
8. You’re blocked!
“About 25 years ago I believed every chain letter that appeared in my inbox, and religiously sent them along to all my contacts.
In my defense, I was a kid, but still, there’s probably a lot of people from that time that have me blocked for this very reason.”
9. Had to go.
“Going to South Africa. I was in school (wild park management) with my best friend. Our year got the offer to go to SA with people from other classes but there was only place for 24 people.
I have never been further away from home then a 6 hour drive and SA is a 12 hour flight away. My thought was: If I don’t go now, I will never ever go.”
10. Funny.
“I was hanging with friends at a bar, and accidentally sat down at the wrong table (really dark inside).
Started talking to those guys, long story short, one of them was getting married on Saturday, and he invited me to come. The other one was his officiant/future BIL.
So I went. It was at the bride’s parent’s house, so I only knew my bar buddies. It was a lot of fun though, I was glad I went! A snobby chick at the reception was like, oh, do you crash weddings often? No, I replied, puzzled, I do go when I’m invited by the groom, though.
The marriage didn’t last terribly long, but I’m friends with the bride on the FB now.”
11. Once in a lifetime.
“I went to Easter Island! I was already in Santiago for work when I learned that it was the only place that sent flights there.
I figured it was as close as I’d ever be, and I didn’t know if or when I’d ever revisit Santiago, so I took the leap and did it. Totally worth it.”
12. Adventure time.
“Ziplines.
I have a fear of heights so I was very nervous about going on them in North Carolina with my friends. They were so supportive though talking about how, “Its ok, you dont have to go we understand” or “Of course you dont have to, I just think you would actually enjoy it”.
It was because they were so nice about it I really didnt want to disappoint them. I had an absolute blast on them by the way. So much fun after the first 5 seconds of terror on the first line haha.”
13. Yuck.
“Vaping.
I have asthma so after about a week of bronchitis type coughing keeping me up at night I decided that even though I enjoyed it, I’d rather not be d**d in a month.”
14. One and done.
“Some college roommates took me clubbing.
I have an attitude that as long as something isn’t harmful, I need to force myself to try it at least once (because I’m an introvert, and otherwise I just never do s**t).
In this case, I ended up absolutely h**ing it. Every part of it was awful. Oh well, at least I can say I gave it a shot.”
15. I don’t even want this thing!
“A standing desk.
What was I thinking?
Now I have this thing I don’t want to use and nowhere to put it because it’s so big and awkward and wastes aaalllll the space on my desk.”
16. She can’t let it go.
“Dragged my girlfriend (now wife) to see Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li in the theater.
I was convinced that it was going to be one of those “you had to see it in theaters” movies.
It was not.
15 years later and she still brings it up.”
17. That’s cool.
“Became a music producer for film and tv at 41 years old.
Played music with bands growing up. Became high school media arts teacher and got to practice my skills almost daily. Realized I wanted to see see if I was good enough to make something out of it all.
Busted my a** learning as much as I could about the business. Fast forward 15 months- now partnered with 4 libraries from Toronto to California, collaborated with musicians from 3 different continents, written and produced over 100 songs for film and tv.
Kinda cool trajectory for a year and a half.
Fear Of Missing Out can easily be replaced with Someone’s Gonna Do It, Why Not Me?!”
18. Should’ve worn a cup.
“Paintball at my dad’s girlfriend’s son’s birthday party when I was like 13ish.
I did not know what a cup was since I had never done anything that needed one, and the place we were playing at did not provide anything other than a helmet.
A minute into the round someone shot me in the balls.
I h**e paintball.”
19. Gettin’ wild!
“Skydiving.
I went on a road trip with a few friends one time. They all wanted to go skydiving, but I did not, mainly because of the money.
Eventually I decided I could afford it and went. It was one of the most fun experiences of my life.”
20. Never again.
“Having recently divorced in the mid nineties, I was open to anything new and the sight of people gliding along in those new “roller blade” skates got me thinking. I confidently went out and bought a pair.
After about 5 minutes of skating around the street in front of my house I caught a glimpse of myself in a window reflection. I looked like a total dumba**, took the skates off, and never used them again.”
21. A small victory.
“In the “all my friends were doing it, which gave me the idea” vein, nipple piercings.
They all took theirs out after about 6 months and I still have mine 10 years on so I guess that’s a victory for impulse decisions.”
22. Still not into them.
“Oysters.
My sister-in-law and her husband had friends visiting from another country, so they took them along with my mother-in-law and me to Seattle to some foodie restaurant and one of the appetizers they ordered was oysters on the half shell.
When they noticed I wasn’t eating any they asked and I said I’ve never had them but the idea of raw goo wasn’t very appealing. So after some convincing on their part, my brother-in-law fixed one up for me. Moral of the story, oysters are still not my jam.”
23. Expensive.
“Peloton bike. To cost so much it sucked that the handlebars don’t move forward and back. In order to reach the handlebars and have the seat in the right place, i had to have an aggressive riders posture.
The two workarounds were to add a 400 piece of equipment which would void the warranty or put big swim noodles on the handlebars so they’d be closer to me. I chose to return it and get my money back.
For 2K it shouldn’t need modifications for short people.”
24. The best way to see movies!
“Yesterday I went to the movies by myself because I really wanted to see the new Demon Slayer movie.
It might not sound like much but I have really bad social anxiety so it was a huge step for me and I’m very proud that.”
25. High in the sky.
“When I was on my honeymoon on an Alaskan cruise. My wife really wanted to try zip lining.
Unfortunately my weight was a little bit above what they’re suggested max weight is for safety, so instead of staying in town or just hanging out, I went on a walk. I saw a tiny river coming down from the mountain and I decided I wanted to go see that river. I thought to myself that if I don’t do this now there will never be another chance in my life I’ve ever seen this.
So I walked through the town, walked through the forest, and up the mountain and found that river. It was such a life-altering moment sitting there and breathing in the idea that I just went and found a river in the middle of nowhere. The entire world looked like a painting. When I realized what time it was I started to walk back and ended up getting lost on the mountain. I ran into a hiker by chance and he guided me back down the mountain.
I tried to find my way back down from where he left me, and met another person who let me into his house and showed me the way through town. Even giving me a coffee to go from his own coffee pot. I walked back into town feeling physically exhausted after walking for about four or five hours. And it was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever done. At the time I was doing a journalistic webcomic about my life and I ended up trying watercolor for the first time in my life to color this story.
Because I felt since I tried something so out of my norm and wheelhouse by venturing up into a mountain I might as well try doing art in a different fashion too. This might not make the greatest hits of this thread, but it absolutely changed my life.”
What are your FOMO stories?
Please share them with us in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
