Embracing New Worlds

Change is inevitable. ‘Everything stays but it still changes, ever so slightly’, is one of my favourite lines from a Rebecca Sugar song. Change doesn’t have to be positive, not everything goes from caterpillar to butterfly. Things could go from sweet to sour and we have to live with it, but change happens. I sometimes wish things stayed the way they are, because moving from a particular moment is spontaneous. I’ve said before ‘If I could manipulate time I would never stay in the present.’ which is a bit ironic. The past I so desperately crave was once a present I did not cherish and the future I’m dying to reach would also become my present. I blame change. If things just remained the way they were I wouldn’t hate now so much. The change wasn’t all that bad though, the new experiences led to somethings that I loved. We strive for that feeling of nostalgia so much that we forget to appreciate the present before it slips away. We make the same mistakes we did in the past without realizing it, dismissing the beauty right in front of us for a familiar feeling of the past.

Change leads to growth. People forget that change reforms them and makes them different versions of themselves. I know that I’ve become someone I love more. I’ve grown to realize a lot about myself and learned to assess situations better. The changes I’ve gone through have made me a better judge of character and made me more comfortable in my skin. Change alters our mental chemistry and leaves us in the same bodies, we learn to adapt and shield ourselves from the realities of the world better. Change makes me realize just how much I need to work to make a difference. Change taught me to take pleasure in the little things before it passes me by because time is fleeting. Life can be ephemeral and you’re the only one who can make the most of it.

Unfortunately change can be vexing too. People fade out of your life, things get harder, and life gets a little bleak. Things aren’t always going to change for the better. I’ve faced events that have scarred me and left me worse off. Those are the moments that make you want to shrink into the background. Those are the moments that change you irreparably. Change sometimes seems like a punishment but you’ll always learn from it. I’ve learned how to assess situations and get straight to problem fixing, I’ve learned to sit and feel before acting, I’ve grown to realize that everything I feel is valid too. Change shapes a person and opens you to the harsh world.

I never liked change, only because I only took note of the bad and never the good. I never appreciated the way things got slightly better or how I grew from it. I focused on how my life drastically changed for the worse. Things never stay the same though, it’s always changing in some way. I hated how I could no longer ease into conversation with the people I used to get along with. I hated how everyone separated into new groups and became new people in the same bodies I recognized. It crushed me to see people grow into individuals I couldn’t understand but I began to understand that life shapes us into different people. We won’t have the same interests forever and the rapport and banters won’t stay the same forever. That’s all a part of change though, everyone falls into their own circle in society and we get accustomed to it.

Change might suck, or rather, the change we always notice sucks.

It’s very necessary though, nothing stays the same for too long and we could have different reactions to that but eventually we grow to understand it. We should accept the changes that happen to us and try to

make the best of it.

Written by, Amina Abdulkareem