Change May Be Scary, But You’re Never Facing It Alone

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We often try to recall where we were exactly a year or years ago – or maybe even a few months ago. As unchangeable as circumstances may have then seemed, we are confronted with the truth that we are perpetually evolving as the clock ticks.

Things that we never imagined we’d have to let go off, people we never thought we’d part with – incidents that we couldn’t ever fathom – they happen, all the time. And this is just the first step toward the beautiful journey called change.

Familiarity brings a sense of contentment; parting with it creates fear. We are so afraid to step out of our comfort zone. We compel ourselves to trace new paths at times; at other times, we don’t have a choice.

We question ourselves and our beliefs. We try changing things about ourselves, and we let some things be just as they are because it is the only thing we’ve ever know. Sometimes we get to choose between both sides of the same trajectory. And sometimes, we are impelled by our experiences to change ourselves.

We think of who we used to be at different junctures in life. And although we acknowledge that our inner core remained intact, we also realize how malleable that very vulnerable core is. We fortify it, then we break those walls, grow new layers, and shed them. Finally, we look back at who we’ve become. We isolate ourselves from our experiences, sometimes forgetting that we connected the dots as we faced them.

Sometimes people remind us of how much we’ve changed – some with joy, others with sadness. And sometimes, we compel ourselves to assemble all our thoughts as we struggle to embrace the changes that we never realized occurred.

We constantly abandon old habits. Adversity urges us to saunter through the inseparably linked mazes, until we understand where we are headed next. Happiness reiterates that the silver lining on the cloud is set against the backdrop of the golden sky. People evoke visions of who we want to or don’t want to be. Being inundated with challenges and victories is a continuous quest. Regardless of how fervently we try to escape how it changes us every day, it is an actuality we can never evade.

We are so afraid of change, even though we know that we emerge as stronger people by accepting changes around us – and the ones that come from within. These aren’t things we think of every day. But when we reflect on how much we have changed over a period of time, we are liberated by how we changed even when we never realized it.

We keep opening new doors inside the veneered closets of our lives. Sometimes, actions that seem to have opened a Pandora’s box are disguised as treasures that were waiting to be discovered. When we do reminisce about the past every now and then, we feel startled by how much we have changed.

We can overcome any challenge, we can live without the ones we thought would always stay, and we will continue to usher in happiness into our lives — because we must, because we have no choice but to change with changing times.

Because things change. As resilient as we believe we are to change, it’s one of the few places where we don’t get to have a say. But embracing change opens the doors to beautiful people and places. We can deceive others by holding on to things that changed long back, but it’s the only trick we cannot pull off on ourselves.

featured image – Sandor Somkuti