Change…

Something in life we all have to go through, like it or not, is change. Sometimes it is the smallest details – a bus stop moved to a different location on a street, a change of packaging on your favourite beauty products, a re-release of your favourite book with new cover art – but sometimes it is those life changing moments that take a long time to adjust to.

Some people abhor change, fearing every tiny adjustment in their lives. I’ve worked and lived with people who are unable to embrace even the slightest change. On the other end of the scale are people like me: people who need change on a regular basis, whether it be something as simple as rearranging the furniture or buying new bed covers or a new ornament. Perhaps we need to move homes frequently to avoid that sense of stagnating, of never moving forward. Perhaps we need to change jobs, social circles, hobbies or tastes.

They say two of the most stressful things to do in life are to move house and change jobs, yet in my life I have more than once found myself doing both of these at the same time. This time, thankfully, I just have the new job to adjust to so things are marginally calmer than they have been in the past. That is, unless my landlord suddenly decides to serve notice on me. Fingers crossed; that would not be a well-received change. But permanently worrying about things like that is a whole different blog topic.

So what does it say about me, and those like me, to constantly need change in our lives? Personally I see it as an unwillingness to ‘settle down’ and make permanent roots somewhere. I need to know that life may be more than this in future. I need that sense of being an individual, that sense of freedom that means if I suddenly decide I need to be somewhere else, experience something else, I will be able to go without protracted arrangements or complications.

So does that mean I am inherently unhappy? No. But it means I appreciate there is more to life than what is immediately in front of me and I am permanently plotting a way to get me there. I may be unsettled but it allows me, however temporary it may be, to settle somewhere, safe in the knowledge that none of this is permanent so I’m ok for now. 

Elloise Hopkins.