Just Sit Down, Already

Fomo is very real & very dangerous

Thanks to my mom's handiwork, my immune system is top notch. I proudly dodge flu season like any daughter of a nurse would. That is, until this past month. While I'd like to blame it all on New York's super germ-riddled Subways, I know the real reason was my own damn self.

I spent my first month-and-a-half in New York working full-time, often coming home after 10 p.m., and commuting more than two hours a day. Looking for a city guide and grateful for company, I even entered the dating world. If I was invited to an art opening or rooftop after party, I was there. I missed nothing. It was thrilling. It was tiring.

I never once thought that I would move to New York to become a mum homebody, but I never planned on being out six of seven nights a week, either.

Then, the ultimate betrayal came. My throat started itching. Next: the sneezing and the aching. My voice turned raspy, and not the sexy Scarlett Johansson kind. I sounded bad and felt worse. As I was going through boxes of tissue and replaying my mom's warnings, I was thinking, "this could have all been avoided if I just sat the hell down."

I never once thought that I would move to New York to become a mum homebody, but I never planned on being out six of seven nights a week, either. There were days when I was only home to shower, sleep and walk my dog. FOMO is real, and it literally made me sick.

Knowing that new experiences were just a few subway stops away from me made it hard to accept that I could not simply spend nine hours at work, commute an hour home, do a rushed change and head back out for the night. But since being sick reduced me to a sniveling sob, I've come to terms with it.

For the sake of my health and well-being, I'll be saying no to more things. I won't try to squeeze a date in after work and before doing laundry, no matter how great that little restaurant in Park Slope is. I'll have to pass on that open bar, even though free alcohol is just what I need after work. And I won't, for the love of god, get that sick ever again.

One such night: Still sick, I'd worked all day, went to a concert and had dinner, getting home at 2 a.m., only to be up for 8 a.m.