The word "change" has many positive and negative connotations in our world today. Change can indicate something hopeful or something rather scary. It is never easy to do or to accept, but change is inevitable and unpredictable. It can come in many shapes and sizes--from a new appreciation of comic books to an unexpected death. In our world today, change is scary although necessary. I have always been the kind of person who does not take change well even with silly things such as a new refrigerator or replacing an old blanket. However, I have learned that I need to accept change in my life and have become better at accepting it when it comes my way. I have also learned that change brings about growth, and as humans in an ever-developing world, we too must grow.

In high school I would be asked to identify a character as either "dynamic" or "static". A dynamic character changes throughout the story--they are essentially not the same person they are on page one as they are by the end of the book, whereas static characters never change. This idea was always a bit unsettling to me because at some point in that "static" character's life they must have developed and grown, but the reader just never gets to witness it. Humans beings are not meant to be static characters in a story, but dynamic. We become dynamic characters in our own stories when some form of change enters our lives. When change occurs in our lives, we often grow.

Changing and growing are not exactly synonymous, but one brings about the other. When a life-changing event happens in someone's life, they have the opportunity to grow from that event. It all sounds very vague and somewhat philosophical, but just think about it. After a life-changing experience happens, a person's perspective, values, ideals, interests or hobbies may change--that person may grow from that change. This is not to say that every life-altering event is good and has a good outcome, but not all change is negative and terrible. If change can provoke positive growth in a person, then perhaps it is not all that bad. Change is also necessary with our world today. There are things that need to be changed drastically in this world, for example, how we treat one another. Would it be so terrible if we all treated each other better in this world? We need to make this change and from it, we can all grow and set an example for younger generations, however, we cannot do that unless we change our ways.

Change leads to personal growth and is not always that bad. I was once told that "change is necessary to make the world less bland" and it is. When one person is willing to make a change and to grow, it can lead to a huge ripple effect. One small change can develop into something much bigger. Not everything needs to change, but there are things in this world that undoubtedly need to change for the better. Some of the greatest innovators in our world were able to see that the world needed a change, whether it was with a light bulb or a speech about a dream of equality that was anything but absurd. These innovators had experienced change in their lives that had provoked some sort of change in themselves and they utilized their self-growth to express the evident need for some sort of change in our world. No should have the same mindset forever and be a static character, we are all meant to be dynamic and to change.