Unpublished Stories – That one time I learnt where the Adventure is at…

One snowy weekend in Chamonix, where I had my plans cancelled, no one invited me to ski, and I had a whole lot of fomo. This blog post was written by my former self back in 2017 – and for some reason I didn’t think it was good enough to share, but I hope you enjoy it now.

Unpublished Stories is a blog series where I share the stories from my life that I have written in the past, but never shared online. So far they have taken us from New Zealand to Switzerland, and now we are going to go jump into a ski weekend in the Chamonix Valley… I hope you enjoy the ride!….

Hello Every One! 

I had the best life lesson this weekend and I am so excited to tell you all about it…

Can I just Start by saying that you are fucking fantastic and if you are reading this it is because you bring so much joy and Happiness to my life 🙂 I hope you have had a magical few weeks since my last post and that even in the cold weather I hope you have stayed warm inside, spring is around the corner, it’s coming slowly but it is very nearly here. 

My Life lesson started on Sunday morning, I was pottering around the house taking my time. I had fairly loose ski plans and nothing to rush for, getting my ski gear ready, checking who was out, and aiming for the 10 o’clock bus. I was waking up slowly and taking my time. I was planning my ski day and trying not to think about the adventures that some of the people I knew were having… adventures that I had not been invited to. 

I was managing to keep my fomo mostly checked. And Then…. Then… My Ski Buddy number one messaged. She was letting me know she had an adventure invitation, and she was going with them rather than skiing with me…. Which is fine… except they still didn’t invite me! And all I really wanted was to join them, I didn’t really want to be having a chilled morning, or making easy ski plans. Queue heaps of negative thoughts, some sulking, general anger at everything, and some generally disrupted Zen.

All positive reasoning was trampled by a ton of jealousy and a truck full of fomo. 

Pulling my aggy self together, I got the bus and it was crowded which pissed me off, I had arranged to meet a different friend and couldn’t find them which pissed me off , and then the slopes were super crowded which pissed me off… and heaps of other completely inconsequential irrational factors just generally made me sulk Evvvvven more! 

I just wanted to be on an adventure…

I finally found my new ski buddy, just as the sun broke through the last of the morning cloud. the sun was shining and within a few minutes of some great (not sulking) company I started laughing and joking about all different irrelevant things. That voice of reason, gratitude and acceptance grew a little louder then the voice of jealousy, and I started to just enjoy the time on the mountain. We skied and skied and skied and found some runs and some fresh tracks. We Adventured off one run and on to another and discovered some sneaky new short cuts. Despite trying to hang on to fomo… I couldn’t deny it, it Was Great Fun! 

There was this one moment at the bottom of one run where I looked around at how beautiful it was, taking a moment to get some perspective and just appreciate how lucky I am to get to ski every weekend. This thought came to me…

I realised that it’s not about going on Adventures, it’s about creating them

Right here, Right now in this present moment. Think of all things things you could ever dream of doing, and do them, right now, not tomorrow not the next day. Do Them, work it out, and don’t wait for any one to invite you, Invite them, and most importantly always invite yourself. 

Always Invite yourself…

Just so you know, by the end of the day I felt heaps more confident on my skis so I really achieved something that I don’t think I would have otherwise, so it really really did all work out for the best. It’s great when that happens eh?

Any way, that was the moral of my story right there: 

“Fomo Steals the Fun and the True Fun is right here, right now, where you create it” 

Have A Great Day 🙂 

>> I hope you enjoyed reading this unpublished story as much as I enjoyed finding it and re reading it from a new perspective. I want to address privilege before you go. I appreciate that in this blog and in my life I am hugely privileged, getting to spend weekends skiing is something that is inaccessible for so many people. Moaning about something that is such a huge opportunity can really come across as spoiled, and ungrateful, and I really apologise if that’s a tone that you felt. What I wanted to highlight by finally sharing this story, is more that feelings are feelings, and you have them no matter where you are or what you’ve already achieved.

Have you enjoyed this blog? Please let me know ! Drop a like, a comment, a follow ! and head over to @frankie_dewar on IG to find out about more stories and adventures.

Happy Adventuring!