If you’re like me, you cannot afford to go to every major book festival every year. Whether that’s from not being able to afford it or not being able to get off work, it can suck. YallFEST, ALA, BookCon, NoVaTeen, Texas Book Festival, YallWEST, National Book Festival, and ApollyCon are just some of the annual events hosted in the US and it can suck not to make any of them.

I have been lucky enough to attend one or two festivals each year with last year marking three (usually within my area): NoVa Teen Book Festival, ALA, and YallFEST.

But as ALA Midwinter passes, and I look at everyone’s hauls, I get sad and wish I could have gone. Or convince myself that I could have afforded to go (I really couldn’t).

So how do I deal with FOMO?:

1. The easiest and the hardest is avoidance. I skip passed all the haul photos and special things people managed to grab – it will makes me feel like crap and sparks the green monster inside. So best thing to keep me happy to move passed it.
2. Look at my past convention/event items I’ve received. Someone out there is super jealous I managed to grab that book or item and I should be happy to have it.
3. If you haven’t gotten a chance to attend one yet, make a plan! Plan to go one year and make it something to look forward to. I planned for over a year to go to my first BookCon and it made the experience amazing, I didn’t even care what other people I got. I was just happy to get to go with my best friend.
4. Try to be happy for them. This could be their first event/the only one they can go to/whatever the scenario. And while their excitement could be seen as bragging, I don’t know what they had to go through to get there.

 

FOMO sucks for everyone. Hopefully my tips will get you through another year of festival madness!

What are some things you do to get through FOMO? Leave a comment down below to let me know.

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