Chasing Feeling Electric
Sitting next to each other on an airplane for the first time, I looked over at Anthony and said, “I feel electric.” Giddily smiling ear to ear, he agreed.
It is the best word to describe when you’re thinking “Is this real life?” mixed with believing the world is at your fingertips and seeing your life through a whole different lense for the first time.
There are only a few instances in my life that give me this high. I spend the rest of my life chasing it.
Traveling is one of them. In a whole new place, you start to consider all the ways you could reinvent yourself. You picture what your life would look like if you lived there. What kind of house would you live in? That, or you imagine if you never lived in one place. Perhaps those are the people that chase the high forever, the traveling hippie nomads.
For myself, I know I always get a bit bolder with my outfit choices while traveling. Nobody knows you there — you can be whoever you want to be. There is something beautiful in not knowing anyone in a new place and that is watching others discover you for the first time.
How many times do you meet someone for the first time? Meeting someone new is exhilarating. If you think about it, you are just an accumulation of things you liked about other people and adopted for yourself. When the amount of people you know is a small circle that has stayed the same since the 6th grade, how are you evolving? Where do you gain inspiration from? Newness is refreshing.
On the flip side, watching someone discover you for the first time is like seeing yourself through a whole new lense. When people are around each other for a while, unfortunately you begin to grow accustomed and nearly numb to each other’s greatness — probably the very thing that drove you to them in the first place. For example, you may forget how cool you thought their style was. You may forget how surprising their sarcasm was the first time it came out of their mouth. Because when you see the same style and hear the same sarcasm, it loses its initial “wow” factor.
Seeing someone discover you reminds yourself of your own strengths. This week, I got to formally meet the coworkers I have been working with remotely for the past two months. In doing so, I have experienced many new lenses of myself.
One mentioned I was “so friendly:” a small comment she definitely forgot but stuck to me. I have never defined myself as “friendly” per say, but it reminded me that I am great at talking to people — a trait highlighted by newness.
One laughed at my self-deprecating joke. A simple chuckle that reminded me that I am funny.
In seeing yourself through their fresh lense, you gain a whole new perspective and your life takes a new shape. It’s electric.
I (along with nearly every other person in the world) chase this high in just about the only way we all know how: love. Love is the most explicit electricity I have ever experienced. Quite literally, it is a shock.
For those who don’t know, I met my boyfriend when we were in the 5th grade. I’ve been obsessed with him since. He has been an honorary mention in every diary I have ever owned. Not to rat myself out on being a total simp, but he has been a high I’ve chased for nearly my entire life.
Being in love strips you until you’re completely vulnerable — letting someone else into every inch of who you are. They see you in your rawest form. In return, their love for all of you is a feeling one will chase for a lifetime. You feel seen, home, cherished, cared for, special, worthy, and safe. Together, you two could take on the world. This feeling is so strong, yet so delicate that it has to be held faithfully, tended to, and kept as sacred. For something that is that electric, people will nourish it until they die.
I am very easily-inspired. Just tonight, I had a bad-ass female waitress and I texted my boyfriend: I think I will be a server at a nice restaurant alongside my entry-level job out of college. She inspired me!
True inspiration gets you moving. You see something someone else is doing that you admire and you do it. This action of becoming something you looked up to and bettering yourself is electric. You see new possibilities for your life and make them come true. This cycle of leveling-up allows you to see yourself in a new lense again, proving to yourself you can be all you want to be.
The last surge of electricity in my life that comes to mind is at a concert. As hundreds and thousands of people scream the same words together, for once we are all united. You feel seen in a community of strangers. In belting the lyrics that are the background music of your life, you see that they are the background music for strangers, too. This was the album that was popular when you both learned how to drive. They slow-danced with their prom date to this one as well. They sang this song when they lost a best friend, too.
Music affects people so deeply and you can see it in the faces of those hearing it live. When you realize a stranger shares your same emotion, you see your experiences as more bearable because you don’t have to do them alone. The crowd collectively tackled them together, while their favorite song motivated them in the background. This communal venting session is electric.
Feeling electric expands life’s possibilities. It challenges you and comforts you all at the same time. Life loses its mundanity when there is a goal within reach. Who doesn’t love the chase?
