Change — Both Scary and Exciting

By Sara Volka

As summer comes to an end, you may feel as though a chapter of your life is closing. The leaves are beginning to turn golden, the sky fading to orange sooner in the day. It is the time to prepare for a new era, to throw on your cozy sweaters, to break out your favorite fall movies and shows.

Between the seasons of late summer and early autumn, a lot of change can occur. A new school year is on the horizon, maybe even a new internship or job position. However your new academic year looks, it may call for a lot of adjusting, which can be incredibly intimidating and stress-inducing. 

We’ve all been there before. You have a new schedule, one that is more demanding than the year before, and suddenly, you don’t have as much free time. Changes in your environment can happen, changes in your daily routine, even changes in your friendships can occur. You may feel as though you miss the summer, or miss last school year, or miss high school when everything seemed simpler. 

Whatever it may be that is causing such differences in your life, it is important to remember that change is necessary. How else could we appreciate the summer without the absence of its warmth in winter?

On my first night of college, after I hauled all of my belongings up three flights of stairs and assembled my new life– I couldn’t help but feel a longing to be back home. I was in a new city, no longer surrounded by everything I had known and loved. I called my best friend from home, telling her I think I might’ve made a mistake, that I felt too lonely there.

Of course, my bestie told me what I needed to hear. She told me that moving away was important, that this big change gave me the conditions to grow and learn. While this was a hard pill to swallow, it's a valuable lesson to learn in life. 

Our lives are ever-shifting, moving in directions that are entirely unpredictable. Yes, that can be horrifying, and yes, that can upheave a lot of complicated emotions. You are allowed to feel scared, nostalgic, and mournful of times passed, but we should never limit ourselves by rejecting change. 

The closing of a chapter means the start of an entirely new one, one where you will make new connections and encounter new experiences. A new school year, a new job, a new town, even a new hobby can open doors for you that you did not even know existed. I know this is true, because I decided to embrace the change of moving away to college, and with that came the life I had been looking for. 

As a recent college graduate, I find myself sitting with the same emotions I had felt back on that first night of college. A new path lies ahead of me, one where I do not know the end to. One that is arguably more daunting. Yet, I now know that change is something to be celebrated, as that means I am in the best conditions to become who I was always meant to be.

To embrace new beginnings is to accept the world opening up to you. Say yes to those spontaneous plans, or to that new offer, or to the club you never gave a chance to. Accept that nothing will ever be the same, and relish in the beauty of missing something. That means you loved it. I am sure you will love this next chapter, too.