If ditching an activity makes you happy... then just do it

Fomo and childhood conditioning can make us pursue activities we don't enjoy just to fit in or keep up with the 'in' crowd.

- Karen Tee

While we're still marinating in the sweltering midday heat, many are already starting to plan their year-end getaways. And the allure of a wintry escape, complete with snow-dusted mountains and frosty air, is hard to resist.

If my avalanche of Instagram updates is any indication, it seems like from December to March, half of Singapore migrates to Niseko and Hakuba in Japan, or even the French Alps.

Everyone seems to be out there hitting the slopes — or at least pretending to. And it's easy to experience the fear of missing out — more popularly known as Fomo — if you're not doing the same.

It was Fomo that led me to Hakuba earlier in 2025, strapped to two planks and careening downhill in sub-zero temperatures.

It was not the first time I had tagged along on ski trips with friends who live for powder days. And I often wondered why I found myself cold, cranky and questioning my life choices while clinging desperately to my poles as I tumbled miserably down the bunny slopes.

But on this particular trip, as I trudged reluctantly through knee-deep snow, lugging skis that kept slipping off my shoulder, I passed a kindergarten-aged child wailing on the snow, clearly over it. The boy's parents, who sounded Singaporean, were pleading with him to try again, but it seemed like he'd decided that enough was enough.

The child I passed was the perfect embodiment of how I felt inside. And that was when it finally hit me like a snowball to the face: I really didn't like skiing. And yet there I was, forcing myself to enjoy it. It was childhood all over again.

SUBCONSCIOUS RESISTANCE

The encounter with the child resurfaced an old memory of my weekly childhood piano lessons, which started when I was about six, after my mother signed me up for classes as a form of enrichment activity because I had expressed an interest in music.