Travel Edition: Fear of Missing Out? Past Tense!
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hello what is up everyone it is your girl nikki again and of course welcome back to this channel um actually right now i am uh away from beijing i am in xiamen by the seaside and i can't wait to share with you something amazing about this trip and of course as usual i think i'm gonna just um

Also deliver some of my thoughts and ideas as well. And I don't really think that today's episode is going to be very long because I just feel like it's just me babbling about some of my experiences during the trip and everything. But I still hope that you guys can enjoy it, you know, have a little fun. Could it be a fantasy?

Anyway, so you know about 10 days ago Almost all my classes had gone online because you know back then the COVID in Beijing was sort of raging so I was thinking so why don't I take myself to a much deserved trip because

you know after all for the past one year i don't really think that i have like a very decent trip or something you know i was always just going back and forth between sichuan and beijing and then you know just because of the covid happening and then covid not happening and then covid happening again i feel like you know my um you know my mind was always sort of under stress and everything so um

So, you know, back then I just I was thinking, you know, on the one hand, I could actually get out of Beijing and keep safer now that all the classes were online. And on the other hand, I could finally just enjoy some sea air. I mean, God knows how much I love just walking on the beach and soak in the chilling vibe around the beach, you know.

So yeah, it was a very quick decision. And anyway, I finally decided to come to Xiamen. Actually, this is a city that I had traveled before, traveled to before, actually twice. But, you know, I don't quite much remember, you know, the memories associated with the sea, you know. So anyway, I was like, okay, so this time I really just want to spare some time along to stay by the seaside.

And then for the first two days, I was staying in the city center and also for the past one week or so, I have been staying here at a resort and the sea is just a several minutes walk from it. So you can imagine that I'm so, so excited to be staying here around the sea. And you know, my hotel room has a very big balcony and every night when I go to sleep, I don't actually slide the doors closed.

just so that every morning when I wake up, I can directly see the ocean, you know? So around 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, the view is very, very gorgeous. Like the sun is still hanging low and not yet being blocked completely by some clouds. So the sunlight just evenly, you know, hits the surface of the ocean and

And I will just walk into the balcony and see all the greenery and also the view of the ocean. And also at the same time, the birds around me will be like dancing and chirping and everything. So seeing all these beautiful sceneries and hearing all these amazing sounds, it's like a perfect way to start the day, you know, and relax.

Oh, the nighttime, the nighttime, I can't miss the nighttime. It can be really charming as well. So when I walk along the beach for about 10 or 15 minutes, I can actually arrive at a spot where there is a path extending from the beach into the ocean.

So I think this path is about, you know, 200 meters long. So basically, you can walk down the path and then get closer and closer and closer to the sea center, to the ocean center. But of course, it's not like you're so close to the center because it's, you know, after all, just 200 meters. But you know what I mean, right? So it feels sort of like what Ryan Gosling once walked on, you know, when he was humming,

City of stars, are you crying just for me? So do you guys still remember that scene in the movie La La Land? So if you remember that scene, you pretty know what I'm talking about. I mean the structure that extends from the beach all the way into the ocean, you know, just several hundred meters.

And anyway, as I walk deeper down the path, the wind will just blow stronger. Like no longer the gently brushing against your face kind of wind, but the strongly blowing and inviting your hair to dance with it kind of wind, if you know what I mean. So I just love it. You know, like there's no other words that I can say to express my feelings more.

I could just say I love it. So every night I take a walk down the path and then stop at the end of the path, you know, watching the live ocean and thinking about all the amazing stories related to the ocean. I mean, things like Titanic and the legend of 1900s. And then I just get lost in my thoughts.

You know, sometimes I find this sea pretty intimidating. Sometimes I find it pretty amazing and incredible. So anyway, I just enjoy the experience of being able to get close to it and then

It's like sometimes it is making all these sounds, you know, all the waves kind of like flapping on the beach and then it's just like communicating with you. I know it sounds silly a little bit, but you know, this is how I feel. Anyway, so I can't believe how much I have already said about my day-to-day experience here and still haven't gotten to the message that I kind of want to deliver today.

Okay, now let's get to business. You know, in the first few days when I was here, I was like a typical tourist. I was trying to figure out what I can't miss, like the best xia chai mian, the best milk tea, the best seafood and everything.

But the process of scrolling through all the online information about the great spots for food and for sightseeing is actually like a nightmare. I mean, the apps keep recommending new notes that say, here is the one thing you can't miss in Xiamen. And then out of curiosity, I would click in and then see whether what it recommends is worth a try.

But man, it's just so time consuming and energy consuming and just anxiety inducing. And then I just realized that I should not arrange my vacation according to the app recommendations, right? I should just do whatever that makes my trip here feels very natural and very smooth. So I ditched the apps and then spent my time however I wanted to spend it.

and also just did what felt right. Like sometimes I walk a little to the closest seafood restaurant and sometimes I order food right from the hotel and some other days when I don't have too much work to do, I will just take an entire afternoon to walk in the city or just stay in bed and binge watching Friends. So

Anyway, I feel kind of sorry, actually, that the core message today comes at the very end of today's episode. But here it is. I think we should make the fear of missing out, aka FOMO, become the past tense and then embrace JOMO, which is the joy of missing out.

Essentially, when we are going on a trip, the trip should actually serve us, right? But if we always have the fear of missing out, then it just feels like we are constantly trying to finish some tasks instead of really enjoying the here and now. So please practice JOMO, the joy of missing out, and put aside what the apps say.

You know, put aside the good things and bad things that are happening around the world at this moment. You probably will actually miss out on a lot of things, but actually none of those things matter anymore to you. So please just allow the trip to serve you, to just cleanse your mind. And then what you need to do is just to feel the joy of a pure existing,

Okay, so I guess I will call it a night and I feel like I have pretty much delivered whatever I wanted to talk about and it might sound a little messy but please just excuse me for that because it's already getting a little late and I don't just want to record this audio once again or something

So yeah, I guess that is everything for today. And still, thank you very much for listening, my dear friends. And I hope to see you guys very soon in the next episode. So enjoy your day. Enjoy your time in your life. Bye.