Too much

My mother often cautions me against exerting myself too much. Yesterday at the gym, I listened for once – stopping already at 6k when my heart rate crept up toward 180. Instead, I slowed things down with a quiet coffee at Tony’s, the kind that stretches time and brings back memories of rainy mornings in Genoa, Livorno, and other similarly dreamy places.

Later, I took the tram into town for the first in-person meeting of our new research project, “Bioclaims”. Spanning the entire afternoon and evening yesterday, and continuing through today, it was intense, exhilarating – and a little overwhelming. As in the past, I am left with that old fear of being too much: too eager, too opinionated, too present. Not quite as bad as WPSA in San Diego back in 2019, but enough to make me wonder (again) why I find it so hard to stay quiet when I know I probably should.

Still, there is hope in next time. We will meet again in September, this time at the Bio+ conference in Stockholm. Maybe I will find a better balance then.