Reflections on change

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.      –Arnold Bennett

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what
we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life
before we can enter another.  –Anatole France

As a senior in college, I am about to undergo many changes.  I am merely 2 classes away from being done with my undergraduate studies forever…that is assuming my account gets settled financially and all.  I have always been a student.  This has been something that has defined me for as long as I can recall.  As I finish these classes, however, I will take a pause in my studies.  Maybe it will be for a year, maybe it will be for a lifetime.  To say that the completion of these two classes means I will no longer be a student, however, would be incorrect.  I may no longer be a student of the classroom, but I will be a student of the world.

My life is changing in many ways.  Some of these changes slap me in the face, like a recent email sent to the August World Racers, while others are more gradual and seem to go unnoticed.  There are many elements of that change that terrify me, but so many more that excite me. 

Change forces us to move in life.  It does not allow for complacency or for one to become stagnant.  Though many of us like the comfort of routine, change forces us out of that mindlessness and forces us into a more active life.  Sure change sucks sometimes, but that’s only part of it.  It’s kind of like the iceberg principle.  The part that sucks is only the tip of the iceberg that we see.  What lies beneath, however, is the ability to grow and persevere, overcome daunting tasks, prove to ourselves that we’re stronger than we once thought.  Without change, life would simply be boring.  Sure, every once in awhile the boring, mundane, routine life is nice.  I mean, I know I could go for a break in deaths in the family.  But take even the case of death, for instance.  It has the power to break us, yes; but if we choose to give it God, it has the power to foster us into entirely new people.  I don’t think there’s a single person who, after having suffered the loss of a loved one, can say they came through it the same as they were.  Death changes us-more often than not, that’s a good thing.

If change is inevitable, why does it scare us so much then?  Why, upon receiving an email saying the August World Race team has been split in two, did I at first become saddened and even a bit scared?  I know I’m not the only one in that either, since I have talked to other teammates.  In this particular instance, I know I was saddened by the missed opportunities to meet new people and from being separated from people who I may have already started to feel a bond to.  I think that’s the most common feeling among many of us Racers.  But is this really the underlying problem?  Or is it simply the change that bothered us?  I mean, after all, we weren’t going to grow close to every individual anyway and we are going to get split up into smaller teams.  What is it about change that scares us?

Change shakes us up.  It rattles that secure foundation we thought we had, making us grasp for anything.  Here we were thinking we’d have 80 people sharing in our anxiety, fears, and adventures with us and now we’ve come to find it’s going to be two groups of 40!  While ultimately it doesn’t matter, the essence is we’re being shaken.  We were shaken and scared when we signed up for the Race so we grasped onto each other for support.  Now, some of those very supports are being taken and things are being shaken up again, causing us to panic.  In times of change, we often lose sight of our ability to do things.  If we found sturdy support once, chances are we’ll do it again.  We just don’t want to.

So is that the same kind of stress one experiences after graduating then?  I mean, after all, your solid foundation of friends, and real life, is being shaken and taken from you as you get tossed into the “real world” for the first time and are expected to survive. 

Change is essential for survival.  It is what makes us thrive and gives us excitement in life.  It helps us appreciate the routine and the mundane and take note of the often unnoticed parts of daily life.

So, I guess on a final note to my random tidbits about change, I’d just say this…don’t be scared of change.  I know, easier said than done.  But really, my prayer for all of you is that you would simply learn to embrace the change in your life and make the most of the opportunities before you.  I love the Serenity Prayer for so many reasons and I feel like it would really just be a good ending to this.  Recite this prayer and give it to God.  You won’t regret it 🙂