Beating FOMO this summer is on a lot of people’s minds right now. Whether it’s trying to find ways to not feel alone this summer, or even if you’re trying to make your alone time fun, here are some tips and tricks on how to beat FOMO this summer.
My personal experience with FOMO
During the summer, I’m prone to dealing with FOMO, aka the fear of missing out. Since the fall semester is over and the weight of assignments is off everyone’s backs, what is there left to do?
During this time, a lot of our friends are back home, and the summer days can get long, and time can seem to go so slow. This has been my experience, but over the years, I’ve learned how to enjoy my company without a huge friend group.
TikTok/mungbeen72
FOMO is something that I’ve experienced for as long as I can remember. I would find myself scrolling on Instagram, looking at my peers’ and even strangers’ posts of their vacations to foreign countries or even local places. I felt left out, strange, and feeling bad for myself because I didn’t know how to spend my summer alone, without the late-night gossip sessions and plans with friends.
What can someone possibly do during the summer without a huge group of people to tag along on their summer adventures? I had to figure something out. So, I found things to do without feeling sorry for myself in the process.
Solo activities in the summer
TikTok/tayrankine
You might not have thought about doing solo activities this summer. We see a lot of people out with friends and in large groups, but being alone doesn’t have to be boring.
Here are some solo activity ideas from this TikTok video that will get you excited to enjoy your own company this summer:
All of these activities can be enjoyed without friends. Learning to enjoy your own company is a skill worth learning. It is like a muscle to strengthen, and with practice and persistence, you’ll gain more independence and it’ll become normal.
This summer can be different
This summer can be different. There are a lot of times when social media and the bombardment of luxury vacations and fun outings with friends can seem intimidating to look at, but not having many friends this summer or barely having a social circle is not the end of the world.
We forget how to enjoy our own company, especially in a world and climate where there are expectations for us to be social constantly. Learning how to be our own best friend, especially during this season, can really help our mental health.
The positive effects of being alone this summer
Even though society may view enjoying your own solitude as being lonely, there are benefits to enjoying your own company in the summer.
It also helps with reengaging your mind and helps you stray away from societal pressures.
Being alone is a skill worth building because it helps you not to rely on others for validation or fun.
From my personal experience, waiting on others to go out or to have fun puts a lot of strain and pressure on yourself. It makes you feel like you have to depend on others to feel alive, or to even feel like you are a part of something bigger than just being a college student.
A reframe on the meaning of summer
Summer is a season when we put so much pressure on ourselves to be “on” all the time. There are plenty of expectations and this overwhelming feeling of urgency to complete social butterflies.
We don’t need to conform to this norm. We don’t have to put on masks and pretend to be booked and busy this season. It’s like once the summer heat creeps up on us, we want to impress our friends and strangers, but there’s no need to impress anyone with busy summers.
At the end of the day, summer, and every season, is meant to be enjoyed, with or without friends or back-to-back events. Summer should be something you create for yourself.
If people come along to join you in your happiness, that’s a plus, and the most valuable lesson you could learn this season is to be in love with yourself and like your own energy.
Liking our own energy doesn’t mean you have to neglect other people, though. We all need people in our lives to spend time with, and doing solo activities doesn’t mean you have to isolate yourself forever.
This summer break, it’s okay to not have a huge social circle. It’s okay to allow comparison to creep in at times, but don’t allow it to ruin your perception of what your summer is like or what it could become.
Without assignments and deadlines looming over our heads, it leaves us space to ruminate on our thoughts, but instead of using that space in our heads to compare ourselves and think about the times where didn’t have many people to hang out with, we should think about the times we have tried to be there for ourselves.
This summer doesn’t have to be lonely. It can be filled with joy, excitement, and happiness, even without a large crowd.
