4.20.21 // "people can't change"

“People can’t change.”
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When I was younger I believed that.
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I remember hearing that phrase and nodding along. I remember thinking that humans were creatures of habits and to change is a damn near impossible feat.
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In reality, I believed this probably because I didn’t want people to change. I didn’t want my high school friends to change when we parted ways after our senior year summer, I didn’t want my high school love to stop loving me when we went to college, and I didn’t want to give people who hurt me second chances...
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But people change.
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Sometimes those changes have a positive impact on you and other times they can be intensely negative.
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In the past month alone, I’ve seen both of these impacts in my life. I’ve seen a figure who fell out of my life, come back in with beauty, grace, openness, and love. And I’ve seen a figure who was a staple in my life fall away with pain and sadness.
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But just like in life, I can’t hold either of these figures in or out of my life. I hope they’ll stay or come back, but I know we are all on our journeys- journeys of self-exploration, understanding, and creation.
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That’s what my younger self didn’t realize... that I would also change if I truly wanted to find myself and live a life of my own.
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So here’s to everyone changing. Everyone changing all the time and people who come in and out of our life that shape us even if only for a moment or even 30 years.