So for all of you prospective students who are not familiar with the expression FOMO, you will understand its meaning soon enough if you decide to attend Middlebury College. FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out and is a problem that every Middlebury student suffers from. At the student panel during preview day for admitted students, someone asked panelist Abe Katz what the worst part about Middlebury is, and without blinking an eye he answered “FOMO”. I could not agree with this answer more. There are just so many things going on here and you will want to participate in them all. Sadly there are only 24 hours in a day and things like classes and homework exist meaning that you can’t possible participate in all activities, leading to widespread breakouts of FOMO across campus. For example…
Last Thursday night I suffered from a particularly bad case of FOMO. I wanted to go a lecture at 7:00 sponsored by the Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies department, but I also had a meeting for the community service club I am president of, two friends birthday parties at the bar in town, and I wanted to go to the Verbal Onslaught performance at 51 Main, a college owned restaurant/bar in town. On top of that, I had a 40-50 page final senior essay for my English senior work due on Monday. Yikes. As you can probably guess, I didn’t make it to everything. I pushed working on my essay to Friday (procrastination is never a good decision), went to most of the lecture, left to attend the community service meeting, missed Verbal Onslaught (huge mistake, Verbal Onslaught is great) and chose the friend I liked best and went to his birthday party.
This is a typical predicament for a Middlebury student to find him/herself in. So many things going on, so little time. As I sit here writing this blog write now, I am thinking of all the different things I want to do before Saturday: Work on my essay (my final draft is due in a week), help a friend put some finishing touches on organizing a Relay For Life team (happening this weekend) take a road trip with friends to Canada, organize a community service event for my club, go to the Weybridge house feast, and do laundry/clean my room (my mom would be so proud). I have about 36 hours to do all this…
Basically what I am trying to say in this rambling post is that there are so many amazing things happening at Middlebury that there will never be a dull moment. Arts performances, athletic events, lectures, hanging out with friends, (not to mention work), will be sure to keep you busy and engaged.