A friend of mine went to visit his uncle’s farm for a family gathering. At the farm, my friend’s uncle had an electric fence to keep his cattle from escaping. To test if the fence was on, they would grab a blade of grass and touch it to the fence. Through the blade of grass, you could feel a little pulse; if you were to touch the person holding the grass, you could feel it too. So my friend, his cousin, and his brother thought, “What would happen if we held hands and touched the fence?a�� They all stood there contemplating whether or not this was a good idea (which they clearly knew was a bad idea). My friend’s aunt was recording the whole thing, and you could hear her say, “Come on. Grab the fence!” His brother quickly grabbed the fence while grabbing on to my friend, who was holding onto his cousin. As you could have guessed, they all felt the jolts of electricity. My friend flew off running, immediately regretting his actions. It could have caused heart problems, but thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt.

Have you heard of the expression FOMO or “fear of missing out?” That is what my friend experienced that day. He told me that the reason he touched the fence was not that he really wanted to experience it himself, but he didn’t want his family to have an experience that he wasn’t a part of.

Most people can relate to him but not to that extreme. They don’t want to be the only one who can’t afford nice clothing. They don’t want to be the only one who hasn’t tried the newest trend. The Internet has caused many of our FOMOs to grow; for example, some people need to see the latest Snapchat story.

I can personally relate to wanting to fit in, and I know I’ve made bad choices trying to. Some of the things we want can be good for us, but some things people do hurt them. It’s okay to have fun, but I’d rather want to think about who my choices will make me in the future.

I am glad about what I have and trust that it will be good enough for me. I don’t care enough to be updated on all of the newest shows or sneak out to feel accepted. I don’t want to do something I’ll regret, so I’ll stick with being boring.