Panic

The other night I was driving home from my girlfriends house. It was around 10:30 pm, so not too late but definitely dark outside. My thoughts were elsewhere as there were few drivers on the road to take account of. Suddenly out of the corner of my vision I saw some quick movement. I turned my head to see somebody running on their lawn full speed towards the street, and my car. I slammed on the breaks. I seemed to be reacting without any emotion at first. Only after a few milliseconds did fear begin to creep through my body. I was worried something was on the street that I had run over. As I passed the person and his house, I noticed a group of people on the lawn sitting, drinking and laughing. I figured it was just some prank by some drunk kids. As my fear began to subside, a tinge of anger swept over me. I was pretty exhausted that day so neither emotion lasted that long.

The experience was unpleasant. I was really worried. I hate uncertain situations when I am driving.

The emotion was extremely acute (both the fear and the anger) but both lasted for a short duration. The interesting part was the delayed fear reaction. It could be that I was experiencing fear but not aware of it. Or perhaps it wasn't that frightening of a moment. But it certainly was not the same as my previous fear experience that I blogged about. Fascinating.

The person who pulled the prank was the cause of the emotion. Still on the lookout for that ever elusive "spontaneous" emotion.