It can be easy to look around at FSU and feel like the world is constantly moving without you. There’s always something happening, from spontaneous road trips to Thomasville, Georgia, to events popping up on Instagram stories. On any given night, someone is going somewhere. The option to do something is always there, but deciding not to participate feels heavier.
Sometimes that pressure shows up in weird ways. The other morning, I woke up, and it felt like everyone I knew was apparently training for a marathon I never knew about. My feed was full of people running together and tracking miles, and I had no idea when this became a thing. It wasn’t that I wanted to run; it was just a crazy feeling of being out of the loop without even realizing it.
That’s usually how FOMO is initiated. It’s not always tied to a specific event or plan, but to the constant awareness that something’s always happening. In a tight-knit community like FSU, people overlap across classes, clubs, dorms, and friend groups, so information travels fast. When you don’t know about something, it’s easy to assume you’re falling behind socially.
Group chats make this feeling stronger. Plans form quickly and casually, and even if you weren’t interested at first, all of a sudden, you’ve agreed to a cabin trip in Murphy, North Carolina, for the weekend (where I’m writing this). Staying in can start to feel like opting out of campus life entirely, rather than just choosing a quiet night.
Social media also adds to this. You may see packed weekends, spontaneous plans, and people constantly doing things together. What you don’t see are the nights people stay in, feel exhausted, or wish they had said no. Comparing your real, quiet moments to someone else’s Instagram highlights can make it seem like everyone else is having more fun, even if that’s not true.
The reality is that being busy doesn’t automatically equate to feeling fulfilled. A lot of students are navigating the same balance between wanting to stay connected and needing space; they’re just doing it quietly. At a campus where there’s always something to do, it’s easy to get lost in the constant partying and socializing without having a genuine intention.
There’s also an unspoken pressure to justify rest. Choosing to stay in can feel like something you need an excuse for, especially in an environment that celebrates constant movement. Rest isn’t disengagement, and it isn’t something you have to earn. Slowing down doesn’t mean you’re missing out. Sometimes, it’s just what you need.
College is usually framed as a time when you should say yes to everything. That mindset leaves little room for maintaining boundaries, and it turns personal choice into comparison. Your FSU experience doesn’t have to look busy to be meaningful.
The lie isn’t that people at FSU are having fun, but that everyone else is having more fun than you, all the time. In reality, people are just trying to keep up, figuring out things as they go. You’re not behind, you’re just where you need to be.
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