The last weekend in October. Halloween weekend is one of the biggest events for college students. The typical weekend involves many different costumes and spending time with your friends into the late hours of the night. In past years, I have looked forward to this time immensely. And if I did not get to experience this, I would have the worst fear of missing out (FOMO) ever. However, this year was not the same. I found my attention focusing on something else at the end of this October.
This weekend, I found myself down a rabbit hole on social media about the New York City Marathon. It started at the beginning of the week, watching the runners prepare themselves with the marathon carb load in the days leading up to it. In the middle of the week, it was seeing their last shakeout run before the 26.2. And on Sunday, it was watching them get ready. All the way to seeing their mile splits and finishing time. I found myself more upset that I was not running the NYC Marathon instead of living a normal college life this Halloween weekend.
Normally, this is not how I ever was. In fact, I had an excessive amount of fomo when I could not attend any of what my friends were doing. And because of that, for over three years I was able to live like that. At every social event, surrounded by people, I never missed out on any part of the college experience. However, as I have gotten older, I have found myself having fomo less with college events and more with life events. But that does not mean that these moments at school do not matter to me. I just have other things on my mind that one day I do want to be a part of.
NYC had been on my mind through social media content about this. The Chicago Marathon was in October, and I also thought a lot about that one. However, New York was bigger to me. Not only did I see many influencers on social media running it. The day after, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw people I personally knew also running it. There was so much excitement surrounding this race. I could not help but have serious fomo about this. Thinking of my own running and hoping that one day I would be lucky enough to be a part of this. And although I never would have thought something like this would get to me while I am still in college. It did, and part of me wished I were in NYC this past weekend.
This has made me realize that as we get older, our goals change. What used to be crucial for me to feel complete in college is not what I am driven by anymore. And although I still enjoy spending so much time with the friends that I have made while in school and making memories with them. I have grown personally to where I want to live my life to the fullest through experiences I take on. And it may not have been an experience I got to embark on this year. I do truly hope to run the NYC Marathon one day.