Change

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change

/CHānj/

noun

1. the act or instance of making or becoming different.

   "the change from a nomadic to an agricultural society"

Or as I like to call it, the word that really freaks Jackie out sometimes. Admittedly, I’ve gotten better at adapting to change. I think some of us were forced to after 2020. Generally though, change is still something I’m hesitant to embrace. Change means the unknown, and as a person with a disability, the unknown often means more potential challenges ahead. Change means potentially being thrown out of the comfort of something you knew (like moving away from the place you spent most of your adult life and loved). Change means different. Change means things might get worse. I’m not a person who wants to jump around from job to job or live in a bunch of different places. I like to put down roots. I like to stand still and be settled where I am.

I’ve endured a lot of change over the past 4 years. I’ve endured a lot of change just in the past few weeks. Everything I once knew seems to be getting thrown up in the air and popped like a balloon, including myself.

The part of me that’s been able to embrace change more though has seen how it can lead to more growth. How it can make me a better person—more in tune with myself. Change can challenge me, but the outcome is worth it. Change can force me to start totally over which makes everything fresh and new. Change can force me to see some much-needed changes I need to make (change causing change, who knew?). Change can take me to a whole new chapter in my life.

Change is uncomfortable AF, or at least it always has been for me. But it’s the one thing in life that’s a constant. We can’t control so many things and because of that, things will inevitably change. Where we live, friendships, our age, relationships, politics, world events, the climate. It’s all going to keep changing (and it feels like, at an even more rapid rate right now).

I don’t know if I’m ever going to be a person who is gung-ho about change, but I hope that as I continue to get older (another form of change), I continue to try and see change as an opportunity instead of just a challenge or obstacle.

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These are some other great pieces I’ve read on the topic of change and embracing change too:

• How I Stopped Resisting Change and Embraced the Road Ahead of Me

• 7 Ways to Embrace Change in Our Lives (And Why It Can Be So Difficult)

• Change Is Hard But Unavoidable. Eight Insights On Embracing Change

Will leave you with the song that always gets into my head when I write about the word “change”.