I want to apologize to anyone who was walking near me Wednesday morning around 9:30. I’m sorry for my harsh tone, for those nasty swear words that poured out of my mouth and for the stomping as I trudged up Fourth Street to the ARC.

Anger can make a person do strange things. But where does it come from?

My mom and I were on the phone, talking — no, she was talking, I was yelling — about my summer plans. Frustrated and exhausted after months on the internship hunt, I took it out on her. I think I used every combination of the F-word, the B-word and the D-word possible. (Believe me, there are many.)

The anger was building, building, building as I zigzagged through the Six Pack. I clenched my hand tight around my phone.

“Mom, I’m just … I just … I am just so angry.”

Right then, I walked into a tree branch.

Hot tears sprung from my eyes as I shoved my phone back into my pocket. The sting of the poking branch was the final straw. By the time I got to the ARC, the anger had dissolved, and in its place: fear.

I went straight downstairs to the women’s locker room and shut myself in a stall with my thoughts: What’s going on with me? Why am I such a wreck today? Come on, Melanie, get a grip.

A few deep breaths later, a simple truth popped into my mind: Fear is at the root of every human emotion. 

Joseph Ledoux once wrote a column for The New York Times about the anatomy of fear. On anxiety, he called it “an experience of uncertainty,” an emotion we feel when we leap too far into the future.

“While anxiety is defined by uncertainty, human anxiety is greatly amplified by our ability to imagine the future, and our place in it, even a future that is physically impossible. With imagination we can ruminate over that yet to be experienced, possibly impossible scenario,” Ledoux wrote. 

In this age, people are constantly looking ahead and worrying about tomorrow. Our thoughts are way ahead of reality. And once we take a mental turn for the worst, our emotions simply respond.

Emotions have no intellect. They cannot discern past or present or future; all they can do is respond to our thoughts. If we think fearful thoughts, our feelings will surely reflect that.

For many of us, fear paves the way for even more negative emotions.

This is where the anger comes in: When I allow my fearful thoughts to take over my mind, I respond with an angry, hardened exterior. Among my favorite coping mechanisms is yelling at my parents or snapping at my friends. Once my short fuse is lit, there isn’t much time before I explode.

The challenge we all must face is how to respond to fear, worry and anxiety. Do we give in and get mad? Or do we surrender, understanding that we’re not in control of tomorrow?

The latter option certainly isn’t easy. Loosening our grip on the future is one of the toughest things a person must do. But when — and only when — we let go, we will begin to experience the sort of peace we were designed to live in. 

Melanie is a sophomore in Media. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @mellystone.