Physics and its laws are generally considered to be discovered, not invented. Humans observed the universe, invented math, and over hundreds of years gradually uncovered the rules that govern the world we live in.
These laws are mostly bulletproof. They're effectively true and practically proven. Yes, Newton’s laws of motion break down at relativistic speeds or quantum scales, but in everyday life, physics laws are astonishingly reliable, with no known exceptions within their domains. For example, the Laws of Thermodynamics have never been violated. They’re solid as a rock.
But, funny enough, the reverse isn’t always true. Even though we extracted these rock-solid laws from the fabric of nature, not everything around us behaves so predictably. Some things are completely random or so chaotic that you can’t find even the tiniest consistent pattern to call it a law. But what about those things in life that seem solid?
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Long-distance relationships are... brutal. Before I experienced one myself, I was pretty sure I couldn’t handle it. In my opinion, it’s like stripping away most of the beautiful parts of a healthy relationship, intimacy, physical touch, lovely looks, going out, deep conversations, and compressing what’s left into a fragile, often misunderstood form of communication, texting.
It takes a lot of effort, energy, and dedication from both sides. I truly admire the people who manage to keep it going. Because the truth is, when you're thousands of kilometers apart, there’s almost nothing you can do.
I spent months in a long-distance relationship. As I expected, it was incredibly hard not being able to hug the person I loved, hold her hand, smell her hair, or even just look into her eyes instead of a screen. The separation was real. Solid. Bulletproof. Until one night.
You know how your phone automatically goes to sleep if you don’t touch the screen for a while? Some apps, like YouTube, prevent that from happening when you’re watching videos. But most apps, including Telegram, don’t stop the phone from sleeping.
Except… there’s a special case.
When you send a GIF to someone in Telegram, as long as it’s playing on the active screen of the chat and hasn’t been scrolled away, Telegram prevents the phone from going to sleep. I suppose the developers thought users might want to watch GIFs like they do videos, without constantly tapping the screen.
One night, we were talking. It was late in her time zone. I sent a GIF. It was delivered and seen. But no reply came. I waited. Still nothing. A few minutes later, I asked her a question. It was instantly seen, like she was still there, in the chat. But again, no response. A few more minutes passed. Another message. Seen, but nothing back.
And that’s when it hit me.
She had fallen asleep in the middle of our conversation. There was no winding down, no good night. We were mid-conversation. But exhaustion took over, and she drifted off with the chat still open and the GIF still auto-playing on the screen.
As soon as I realized what had happened, I started sending dot messages “.” one after another, nudging the GIF further and further up in the chat window. Once the GIF was out of view, Telegram had no reason to keep the phone awake. I had just a few seconds left. I sent one last message: Love you. Good night. And then, her phone finally went to sleep, just like her. Nothing was delivered or seen after.
It’s hard to describe, and even harder to believe, but that moment felt like magic. Like I had actually watched her fall asleep, gently leaned in to kiss her forehead, pulled the blanket up, and whispered goodnight in her ear, from 9,891 kilometers away.
Who would’ve thought something as intimate as a kiss or a hug could transcend that kind of distance? It was, by every known measure, impossible until that night.
So yeah, I believe there is always an exception. Even in situations that seem as unbreakable as the laws of nature, life sometimes finds a loophole. A way to make the impossible happen.
I love physics and its rules. But I love it even more when life doesn’t always follow them.