A motto of my mother's is "if you're not changing, then, you're not growing" and I believe with 100% of my being that change is healthy and you shouldn't dread it.
If you are reading this, chances are you are in college, debating what to do with your future, while people hound you about your life choices, relationship choices, and nothing stays constant for more than 5 minutes. Even the flavor of ice cream that you are currently craving will change again in five minutes and that is totally okay. Society today puts such an emphasis on you - you are supposed too change for the better by getting shape, living a certain way, take certain classes, participating in extracurricular classes, let loose but not too much, date, don't eat chocolate for breakfast, etc. But what if you took away those pressure for a second and focused on how much you have changed in the past year.
Going back to when I grew up, I did not have a typical stable family. We went through a lot of ups and downs and were constantly experiencing change. I remember even as a child, wishing and praying that things would just be calm and constant for one week, that was all I wanted. I wanted to know what was going to happen for one week at a time and not exactly be in control, but be completely comfortable in what was going to happen. I never got my wish but now I realize why that was so great. Life is change and living life means learning how to deal with the constant flow of stuff that gets thrown on you. What if we were able to change the stereotype of change to be positive? Would that change your outlook on your future? In the past year, you have probably cut your hair at least once, learned one new song to jam out too, met at least one new person, ate at one new restaurant - and while those experiences could have been positive or negative, I bet you learned something new from them.
If you are like me, you are about to embark a whole new school year. That means living with different people, eating different food, going to new classes ( A.K.A., change) and that's awesome. You literally get a chance every single day to change something about yourself. Want to be kinder? You can change that in a moment. Want to learn how to be more independent? Go for a walk by yourself. Change is good, natural progression in life. It allows your personality to ebb and flow, and in college it allows you to become who you are meant to be.
So, if you are at all stressed about the change that is about to come in your life, think about change as a blessing. For if you are not changing, you are not growing. If you are stagnant in your life, you are not evolving. If you don't experience change, you are stuck when others are experiencing great new things around you. Just take that leap of faith and try something new.
Worse come to worse, at least, you will get Instagram likes out of the change.
