Change
The only thing life has ever promised.
Life changes long before we realise it.
It happens in conversations that become shorter.
In routines that disappear.
In people who slowly become memories.
In places that begin to feel unfamiliar.
Nothing changes overnight.
That is why change is so difficult to recognise.
It settles into ordinary life.
By the time you notice it, it has already happened.
For a long time, most of you would resist change.
You might hold on to old routines.
Old friendships.
Old dreams.
Old versions of you.
You would believe that if you hold on tightly enough, life will stay exactly as it is.
It never does.
Childhood changes into adulthood.
Students become professionals.
Parents grow older.
Friends move away.
Dreams evolve.
Even the person staring back at you in the mirror changes.
That can feel frightening.
There is comfort in familiarity.
There is safety in knowing what tomorrow looks like.
There is peace in believing that the people you love will always remain exactly as they are.
Life asks something different.
It asks you to keep growing.
To let some chapters end.
To welcome new ones.
To trust that becoming someone new is not the same as losing who you were.
Looking back, the biggest moments in life were all born from change.
The first day at university.
The decision to leave home.
The career you never planned for.
The people who entered your life unexpectedly.
At the time, each one felt uncertain.
Years later, they became part of your story.
Perhaps that is the beauty of change.
It rarely makes sense while you are living through it.
It becomes meaningful when you look back.
The pieces connect later.
The reasons reveal themselves over time.
The people you once thought you could not live without teach you independence.
The dreams that never happened make room for better ones.
The paths you never intended to take become the ones that shape you most.
Change has never been the enemy.
It has been the reason you are no longer the person you were five years ago.
Kinder.
Wiser.
More patient.
More grateful.
Life has never asked you to stay the same.
It has only asked you to keep growing.
Maybe that is why change is the only constant.
Everything around you will continue to evolve.
The places.
The people.
The seasons.
Your ambitions.
Your understanding of yourself.
You cannot stop it.
You were never supposed to.
The best life is not built by resisting change.
It is built by growing with it.
Because one day, you will become someone your younger self would barely recognise.
And if life has been kind, that will be the greatest compliment of all.
- Akshet Patel