Issue #38: How to escape your summer FOMO

...without even leaving the country. Plus, the trap of 'time pressure', situational loneliness and advice from Four Thousand Weeks author Oliver Burkeman.

Summer FOMO: The fear of missing out on that picture-perfect summer.

Summer can feel like an impossible dilemma. We’re bombarded with visuals of what this season’s picture-perfect aesthetic might look like: a haze of Glastonbury festival footage, chic European city breaks, strawberries n’ cream at Wimbledon Centre Court; barbecues; countryside weddings. There’s a soundtrack of upbeat power ballads and pop songs – Bryan Adams’ Summer of ‘69, the latest ear worm from Justin Bieber or Jason Derulo. There’s a wardrobe so varied it might as well come from a dressing up box: cowboy boots. Crochet everything. Fringing on something. Lavender? Elevated basics. Mermaidcore!

Even during the summeriest of summers, there comes an unwelcome FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out. Because, amid all those images of what summer could – and should – look like, lies the inevitable despair. Whatever you do, you’re somehow failing to ‘summer’ correctly; to make the most of what was, during your school days, an endless stretch of freedom and opportunity. The promise of summer is something that never gets old, but the reality is a different story. It’s a trap I very much fell victim to again this year – arriving back from Lisbon in mid-May with the notion that sunshine, bare skin and endless optimism was all that awaited me, not anticipating any of those complex weird feelings that accompany all the other seasons.

The summer of our discontent