Change is Scary
Nobody wants to build forts anymore. Maybe it’s because we got taller out of nowhere, and decided that we don’t have time for that. Suddenly someone decided that we were grown, and the fort building days are supposed to be over. But that’s how it goes, right? We stop building forts, we stop playing with those old toys of ours… In the blink of an eye, we watch as our present becomes the past and suddenly we’re stood on the grounds of new territory.
Out of nowhere, we change.
It makes me think of when I was little and almost every single adult I met told me the exact same thing, “Don’t ever grow up,” and that simple idea makes me so sad. Now I’m 20, and find myself selling that ridiculous phrase to the children in my life, thus the cycle continues. I think we need to stop saying that to them, I honestly don’t see how it can help them in any way. When I was little, it only made me scared of the future. They told me not to grow up, so there had to be a reason for me to be afraid.
Guys, here’s the thing about growing up… you never really stop. You can’t alter the fact that babies outgrow their routines, and change in a very normal and healthy way. Growing up isn’t a bad thing. Thinking about the future doesn’t have to be scary… it can actually turn out to be your biggest motivator. When a kid learns how to walk, do they just say, “Yep, I got that down, now I don’t ever need to use that skill again,” no, that’s not how it works. Our experiences in life help us to be better fit for what our future holds. When we go through life in a humble way, we allow ourselves to improve and change for the better.
This is what I’m saying: we don’t have to stop building forts in our living room… but we have to keep ‘walking’, continuing to develop, and explore the wonderful unknown that is our future.
Trust me, I know that change is scary and sometimes we can feel terrified by it, I know that it’s hard to adjust. But I also realize now that it is immensely necessary for us to go through it, even when it gets really painful. I mean… think of what it’s like to be trapped in a place that you no longer fit into. Personally, that scares me more than anything.
As time goes by, we continuously outgrow our routines, and I think of this fact as wondrously relieving. We don’t have to be trapped going ‘nowhere’ forever.
Then, why do I now feel like there’s something significant holding me back? Why have I allowed such a small fear to grow as large as it has? Well… you know those books with all of those lines and patterns that allow some people to see a 3D image within the pages? The basic idea is that if you stare at it long enough, it’ll start to look like there’s something real going on inside of this 2D pattern. I think it’s the same idea for when we focus on the smallest hint of worry, the longer we dwell on it, the more intense it becomes. In a sense, bringing our anxieties to life.
I want to change that for myself, I’d love to stop allowing my mind to focus on my small worries, and instead concentrate on the person that I want to become through my goals, and my hopes.
With time, we can builder bigger and better forts together.