“An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion–unless acted upon by an outside force.”

Those words normally refer to an inanimate object responding to the laws of physics, but I realized today that I too am a product of Issac Newton’s First Law of Motion.

I just got back home after gathering information for a story at my internship. I had to introduce myself to multiple people, shake hands, flash smiles, take pictures, ask questions, and just generally gather energy towards and around myself.

This energy formed a field around me, gathering power the longer I was working. My first interview went well. I was relatively calm, and my interviewees could sense this; I got some pretty good quotes.

But the longer I was out there, the higher my energy level. Up, up, and up. By the end, I wasn’t getting anything out of my interviews, going too fast and startling my interviewees. They were like deer in the headlights of my motion.

An object in motion, me, was getting propelled faster and faster by my continued interactions.

In retrospect, I should have taken a moment to sit in my car and do some deep breathing. I am a strong advocate of taking deep breaths. But, because I am just dumb sometimes, I didn’t do that.

Anyways, I had this revelation as I was driving back home afterwards. I found myself unable to slow down. My energy levels were going full force, a train barreling on towards nothing.

I wanted to do something. Anything. I wanted to lead a feminist movement, write a novel, organize my room, go shopping for my apartment next year. All these were possible actions I could take when I got home.

Historically, it took scientists a long time to discover the law of inertia because no one realized that friction was a force slowing things down.

In my case, friction is time. After a period of time, I slowww down back to my neutral state, but it’s exhausting until I get there.

I feel myself coming back down right now, and I am losing the motivation to write this post, but I am forcing myself to see it until the end.

I think I will take a nap now.