Facing “FOMO” as a Deployed Soldier
What started out as a year I was going to be missing out on things ended up going in another direction.
As a military soldier, I can be called upon by my leadership to deploy and go on missions that help the United States of America.
I was called into action and have been deployed for about seven months now and feel FOMO at times.
For those who don’t know, “FOMO” stands for the fear of missing out.
Creating while overseas keeps me busy
As a millennial in today’s day and age, I look online often on platforms such as snapchat, instagram, and facebook where I can see my friends back at home and across the globe partying, going to concerts, and having tons of fun.
Lately with COVID-19, that’s all been on hold but I still feel like I am missing out.
Following my duties, I am working as early as 4am till as late as 4am. I am not seeking sympathy by any means because I understand what I signed up for and I completely own that. It’s just that the more I feel as though I am missing out on something, the worse I feel.
So instead of dwelling on what I don’t have, I am grateful for what I do have because it is much sweeter and allows me to discover myself more.
When you have downtime and can’t do things like hang out at the bars, go to concerts, or spend a day at the beach, it leaves you with only a few other options.
These options include but are not limited to…Video games, reading, writing, working out, drawing, watching movies, or communicating back to home.
With the current state of the world, my ‘fomo’ has been a whole lot lower and I actually feel like I’m in a better situation. I have been able to travel so long as the travel is business/work related.
On phone calls with my parents lately, I have been the one who has more interesting things to say than them!
Exploring things I never made the time to do
I’ve found myself becoming the reading type, the gamer type, and especially the blogging type. It is a ton of fun writing blogs and seeing how much my writing is improving.
I experience FOMO only once or twice a week (the weekends mostly) which is a lot less than I used to because I made sure to live life to the fullest before I left.
If I were to die today, I would be at peace because I accomplished a lot, almost everything I wanted to! This is a reason why I always keep a bucket list.
If you have FOMO, try to find peace with yourself and learn how to operate on your own while still feeling a sense of fulfillment.
I hope this helps anyone who may be deployed or away from somewhere trapped outside the borders. Remember, it’s good to step out of our comfort zone and everything will be okay.
I encourage you to discover yourself by trying new things and changing up your schedule until you find a structure that hits!
