We Can’t Manage Change, but We Change Effortlessly

stumphy
May 30, 2024
5 min read

As a freshman in high school, graduating seemed so far ahead for me in the distant future. The graduates seemed so much older than me, and they seemed so much more mature than me. I looked at them and told myself, “You’ll be like them one day — just as old and mature.”

Years later, it was my turn to graduate. As I finished my final year in high school, I repeatedly asked myself the same question.

“Am I like them? Just as old? And just as mature?”

I still couldn’t believe it. They were so old years ago, and now I’m like them?

Yes, I was just like them — just as old and mature.

It felt so weird. It felt like I had just never changed, and suddenly, I was this person that I once looked up to.

The truth is, I changed, and I couldn’t manage it.

So, why couldn’t we manage changes?

I can assure you I didn’t do much throughout high school to become like them. I did nothing. And I still changed; I became like them — just as old and mature.

One thing that certainly did not change throughout my high school days was my perspective. I was myself when I walked into the school for the first time, and I was myself when I left the school for the last time. I was still myself, and that never changed.

Ya, I was always myself. And I have seemed to take that for granted.

So, yeah, we couldn’t handle changes because, to us, nothing changed. And we can’t make sense of it — that everything changed because nothing changed.

Change is constant, and we struggle with that

It’s interesting how little of us realize that we don’t seem to understand the true nature of change — that it’s constant, just like the flow of time. We cannot alter it, and we cannot escape it.

In fact, it was time that initiates change. We change because of time; things change because of time. We change because time flows.

What’s more fascinating is that we don’t seem to understand time. We comprehend time through moments — discrete slices of time in a timeline. This makes us powerful in accessing different moments — time travel — all we have to do is pull that moment out from our memories.

In reality, however, time is constant and cannot be truncated. Time allows change; since time is continuous, so is change.

We perceive differences in moments as change, and the flow of time happens to be a continuous alteration of moments. As a result, since time flows, change must be constant.

Changes tend to exceed our limits

Our brains are built for one specific task — trying to understand and explain things that happen around us. And we can’t keep ourselves from figuring things out when something doesn’t make sense.

The same applies to change. We compare moments, and when we notice differences, we desperately try to fill in the gaps to make sense of the changes that happened.

However, most of the time, as we try to figure out what exactly happened, we are left confused, questioning ourselves as we struggle to understand the true nature of change — some things just don’t add up.

We can’t compare one moment long ago with another in the present because too much has happened, and we struggle to figure out the details. Too many things happened between moments when our brain failed the simulation task, and an error occurred.

Think about it this way. Instead of looking up to graduates when we were still freshmen, look at somebody a few days older than you at their birthday party. When it’s time for your party, do you feel weird that things don’t add up?

Not so much, right? Chances are, things made sense to you.

We aren’t built to handle significant changes; they are simply too much for us. Looking at changes over a long time, we just can’t simulate everything that has happened, leaving us puzzled and confused.

So, how could we manage change?

Sadly, we can’t really handle changes, let alone manage them. We simply aren’t built to manage or comprehend them. However, thankfully, we can still approach change when we look at it from a different angle.

Change is a blessing, a gift that gives us hope

We change all the time. Change is constant; nobody can escape it, and nobody can alter it. But we can embrace it — knowing that because we change constantly, there’s always a second chance; that because we change constantly, we can grow; that because we change constantly, we have hope.

In fact, constant change is a blessing. Without it, we would be stuck in one specific moment, unable to do anything even if we wanted to. We all want to grow differently because we’re all imperfect, and change allows us to improve.

We might struggle to understand or accept it. Still, we find a way to make the best use of it — dream big and go big, achieving something far more significant than ourselves. Change gave us hope and empowered us to keep going, even when everything seemed hopeless.

Change is a journey, a vision that drives us to go forth

We can’t handle change because it’s too much to comprehend. But we can embrace it — by looking at each small step we have taken along this journey; by realizing how much we have achieved along the way; by knowing that even though the road was hard, we have made it through.

We can’t comprehend the giant leaps we’ve been through. Still, we can look at each small step — each decision we made throughout this journey. And when we add all these decisions up, everything suddenly makes sense because we’re no longer figuring out the details but reflecting on them. When we see all we’ve done — big or small, we realize change is a journey that drives us to endure and gives us hope.

Change is all around us. It’s inevitable and confusing. But if we focus on the small things we have done throughout the journey — the small steps we have taken, we realize it is only because of change we have come this far. It is only through change we can continue to grow.

Because of change, we’re able to look ahead, dream big, learn from the past, and embrace the future. Change provides us with opportunities, and through change, we can make plans and head to the future with hope.

We change, and we can’t manage it. But we can embrace it, reflect on it, and ultimately, become something far greater than ourselves.