Ah yes, the bane of all existence, the unwelcome guest at a party, our dear dear friend, change. Change is like a person I met at that one social event, who means well, but is not someone I see myself have a lasting relationship with. And yet somehow, I always find myself running into them in the elevator. Unavoidable and apparently, indisposable.
Change is hard. There's no debate about it. It often happens when you least want it, and it forces you out of a routine you're comfortable in. I hate change, and I know I'm not alone in my loathing. Otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this right now.
Whenever I am faced with a pending change, I often go into panic mode: I stress, overanalyze, get frustrated with the situation then at myself, and finally, I admit defeat. (Yes, I can be a tad dramatic at times). But no matter how much I try to prepare myself for the impending "doom," I am never quite ready for it. It throws me off balance, which can feel completely catastrophic. But hey, I'm still standing somehow.
There's an adage that says "Without change, progress cannot be made." I can't tell you how many times I've rolled my eyes at that statement. I mean deep down I know it's true, but that doesn't mean I like it. I think the problem is when we think of change, we often focus on the way it will negatively affect us. But when I force myself to widen my purview, I realize that if my life hadn't changed a year ago or a month ago when I really didn't want it to, I would still be the same person that I was back then. Stagnant. And that is a frightening thought.
Life is never going to go 100 percent the way we want it to. Honestly, thank God it doesn't. Where would be the fun in that? Naturally, we crave stability or at least to feel as if we have a say in what happens to us. But sometimes, we don't. We just have to roll with it.
Currently, I am facing a potential change in my life that will undoubtedly be challenging for me to take on. It scares me more than I'd like to admit, but, I'm coping with the idea of it day by day. For once, it's self-inflicted. While the old me would have completely shut down the idea of enduring such a drastic change, the person I am now isn't being so quick to reject it. Rather than dwelling on how the change may impact the parts of my life that I love, I am weighing how it could alter the parts that I don't. That's what I call progress.
My point is, my fellow change haters, we have to at least try to be okay with the fact that things are going to change. If we don't, we'll just be disappointed when the storm inevitably hits. Because it will. You may get knocked down for a while, but eventually, you'll find a way to get back up. I mean, you don't really have a choice, right? I know it's hard and it may even feel like you're about to lose a lot more than you're about to gain, but be patient. Change is good. I may not believe that 75 percent of the time, but maybe someday that'll change too.
