The Human Resistance

I would like to begin this poem by posing to you all the following question:
If you could travel backwards in time and live your life differently, would you?

One of the great paradoxes of existence is the eternal nature of change.
Change is an unstoppable force.
The inevitability of change cannot be changed,
Which makes the human resistance to change all the more fascinating.

We agonize over decisions about jobs and college,
We anxiously prepare ourselves before the first day of school, maybe every day of school,
We naturally fall into patterns with robotic efficiency such that interruptions are blindingly irritating,
We enter into periods of nationwide discourse every time we choose new leaders,
We grieve for those we have lost,
And we tell ourselves that “Change is hard. It will get better.”

Change is hard. It will get better.

That sentence implies that change is the problem. That it, whatever “it” is, will get better when the change stops.
But change doesn’t stop.

The earth spins, day turns to night, we develop new technology, we grow closer and drift apart, all of this and more as time marches forever forward.

These changes are out of our control. And that is the key factor. Change isn’t hard. Change that we don’t ask for is.

Our job and college choices are influenced by which of those institutions accept our applications,
Attending school is required by law,
Our brains naturally prefer patterns and consistency,
The decision of who leads our country is influenced by the votes of other people,
And death is inevitable.
Change is inevitable, and many times it is beyond our control.
And that is hard to accept.

The ships of our lives travel on the stormy, turbulent ocean that is change. We can not control the waves. But we can steer.
We can not determine change. But change does not have to determine us.
We can grow.

Personal growth is a reaction to change. It is the simple, almost obvious fact that changes to our lives change our selves, for good and ill.
Change is hard because growing means that you were not your best self. That you could have been a better person.
Change is hard because acknowledging its inevitability means acknowledging that you will never be your best self. That you can always be a better person.
Change is beautiful because it is inevitable. You will always have the opportunity to be a better person.

We attempt to enhance our position in the world, and the positions of others,
We learn how to participate in society, and how that society works,
We become more mindful and self-aware,
We learn how to empathize with others and solidify our own values,
And we live.

If you could travel backwards in time and live your life differently, would you?
Do you have decisions you wish to erase?
Words spoken you wish were left unsaid?
Words unsaid you wish were spoken?
What would you change about who you are?
Is erasing the regrets that helped you grow worth the feelings of contentment?

I do not believe so.
I am willing to live with my regrets, to die with my regrets,
To maintain the same changes that I experienced,
Because they made me who I am.
The decisions I made in my past gave me this life I live now.

I’m excited to see what changes next.
I’m excited to see who I become.