ETA < 1week

to the anxious,

This feeling never gets comfortable, the anticipation before the start of a new day, a new chapter, a new phase, a new unwarranted melodramatic noun. There's a reason why most rollercoasters make you clang clang clang up a steep incline before they drop you precipitously down to your possible, though however unlikely, death. That feeling of dread, both frightening and pleasurable, is what we humans crave in this age of minimal threat of mortal danger (at least in developed nations).

This is the third time in less than 2 years, and the nervous churning in the pit of my stomach is still as strong as that week before I started my first job. Like the first two jobs, I'll probably do fine. There's nothing to be scared of. It's not like I'm going to the African savannas to battle ferocious beasts or even handle biological hazards in a lab. Sure I can kill someone with a misfill, but the human body is a very resilient thing (and it's not me who is at risk). So why the anxiety?
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I recently watched a Nat. Geographic special entitled 'Stress: Portrait of a Killer' on Netflix. Some of the cool things mentioned were that humans still experience the same fight-or-flight response in modern society as we did in prehistoric times. The problem is that we don't or can't turn off this response. The result is that this sustained stress damages our health and shortens our lifespans. There are plenty of confounding variables, but I do buy into their whole conclusion that stress kills.

Though we're taught by popular culture, comedies, and horror flicks that we should never ask the question, 'What's the worst that could happen?', it is my primary mode of stress relief. If a situation were to descend into a Murphy's Law marathon, what really is the worst that could happen? Death?

'What to do if you find yourself stuck with no hope of rescue: Consider yourself lucky that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far, which given your present circumstances seems more likely, consider yourself lucky that it won't be troubling you much longer.' - Douglas Adams

Is it that modern & prehistoric humans need to respond to a proportional level of stress lest we become incapable of running when something nasty decides we look mighty tasty? Perhaps it's like Steve Carrell's character's question in the '40-Year Old Virgin': Is it true that if you don't use it, you lose it?
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Whatever the truth (or best thought out theory) may be, I can only lessen the stress I feel through my slew of Jedi mind tricks. Though I know everything will probably end up better than okay, I consciously and subconsciously keep that little bit of anxiety ready to respond if need be.

And if psychobabble isn't enough, there's always chemical means in the form of a half bottle of MacAllan 18-yr and nearly full bottle of Glenfiddich 12-yr. Maybe it's not coincidence that once man discovered agriculture (and thereby decreased their need for hunting-gathering), they discovered fermentation.