I had terrible FOMO in high school.

My friends were always talking or posting about seeing concerts and traveling. I started to think that if I wasn’t constantly going to big events like concerts, shows, or parties, I wasn’t making memories.

Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with going to big events like that. I saw my favorite musical three times within a three week period. It was so much fun— a real core memory. 

But you don’t need to do anything crazy in order to make good memories.

Let me use a dramatic example: my 21st birthday. 

Birthday parties were a big deal to me.

I started planning my own birthday parties when I was about 6 (granted, my mom did a lot of the heavy lifting). There was always a theme—always a plot of some kind. Usually there was a lot of dressing up involved, and I’d always invite everyone I knew. I had a long list of friends when I was little. And I’d always start planning the next party as soon as the last one was done with. It was a big deal to me. 

Then, the older I got, the amount of friends dwindled. My love for niche-themed parties didn’t, but life didn’t care. My sweet 16 was in March of 2020…things didn’t exactly go to plan for a lot of reasons.

And then my friends got busy. I got busy, too. 

Between work and school, it seemed impossible to schedule anything that big. My big dress-up-murder-mysteries and music-video-shoots stopped being possible.

The plain ol’ birthday.

This year, I didn’t really do anything on my birthday. 

I turned 21. It was a Monday, so I had school. And it was a school night, so I didn’t go out for drinks. Actually, I didn’t go much of anywhere.

But you want to know something? I wouldn’t change that for anything.

I ate lunch on the schoolhouse porch with two of my best friends. We chatted while siphoning potato chips from the gigantic bag in the middle of us. It’d been a gray, cold couple of weeks, but that day was all blue skies and sunshine. Then we went back to work.

When I got home, I opened a few presents and cards my family had sent me. I cooked some dinner. Watched some Teen Wolf with my roomie. Went to bed. That’s it. 

No big party, no big deal, just a simple day with friends. It was awesome.

Rest up, buttercup. 

There’s nothing wrong with a simple day. You’re not wasting time if you rest.

You don’t need to go anywhere specific to make a day special, and you don’t need to do something extreme to make the day memorable.

Simple days make good memories too.

On that note…

You know what else doesn’t need to be a big deal in order to be worth your time? Signing up for my newsletter!