JOMO – What?

More like "Teacher at the end of Week 5 Term 1!" 

After an extremely busy school week including numerous 10-hour days I made it to Friday and collapsed on the couch with my dearest husband Lee (who has been my house husband this week cooking, washing and doing a lot of dishes).

We all know a teacher’s job goes beyond 9-3pm weekdays. If I hear someone tell me how great my working hours are again I might just resort to an angry outburst. This week I have struggled with fitting it all in and have developed a neck pain that I’m sure is from a combination of my ever present “To Do List” and my anger at not having a 27 hour day instead of 24! “Just 3 more hours a day is all I need,” I whine to Lee this week.

I woke up this morning with my never ending To Do List floating around in my head and decided to push it to the back of my mind. I must say although my thoughts drifted to the classroom, darling Johnny’s behaviour, sweet Jenny’s reading development and little Jimmy’s counting difficulties, I’m glad I’ve done it. A day of cooking, cleaning, reading and drinking cups of coffee while browsing mindless trash on the internet has done me wonders. Yes I can hear you all now. “She thinks cooking and cleaning was better than doing school work?” Yep! Crazy right.

During my Internet browsing I did find the time to clean out my 355 emails (345 of which were junk I’ve subscribed to and never read) and finally found the time to read some blog posts (which are not to be confused with the junk emails)! I came across a post from Sarah Wilson’s weekly blog titled ‘the joy of missing out’ (read it here) or JOMO. “JOMO – what?” I say.

JOMO or the joy of missing out is 2014s newest ‘thing’. Apparently 2013 was the year of FOMO – fear of missing out (described as negative feelings of nervousness, anxiety and envy that you are in fact missing out and that other people are experiencing better things than you). Well I guess living on a remote island I miss more than just general news and current events. I missed out on FOMO last year! Or actually being aware of FOMO! Funnily enough sometimes being away from friends and family we have felt a fear of missing out. Missing significant birthdays, parties, social events and our good friend’s wedding last year brought on those feelings of ‘missing out’.

On the other hand being able to walk 15 metres from work to home and spend quality time with Lee and some trashy TV on a Friday night brings on feelings of happiness and relaxation for me! After a long week of work I can’t imagine wanting to travel home through the city, get dolled up and go back out again on a Friday night to socialise. People often ask what do you do on the island? Well work, work and more work is my answer. When I’m not working I’m doing what I call ‘nothing’ or what others call ‘being lazy’ or ‘veging out’. One of the perks of living remote is being able to just do nothing! Go on; call me a grandma or a homebody or a hermit!  Don’t get me wrong I love going to Brisbane and seeing people and actually having a social life but I also get excited about shutting out the world and having a date with a few episodes of Suits, Dexter or SATC (oh and Lee of course)! This is when I’m feeling JOMO.

Who would have thought doing nothing today would bring such a wealth of new knowledge and vocabulary for 2014 hahaha! And as an added bonus for today that horrible neck pain has disappeared! I’m making a new resolution to have my ‘nothing’ day or night more often just so I can experience the wonderful feelings of JOMO.

But wait a second. Not doing schoolwork and relaxing might just bring on some FOMO. Missing out on getting some work done. Hhhmmmm no I think I’ll ignore that thought and bring back the JOMO! 

Hope you are enjoying your weekend too.

It wasn't all homebody activities today. 

Squeezed in a walk at low tide