I believe in change. Change for the better, or change for the worse. Change by necessity and change just to keep me honest. I do not like change. It is different than what I am used to. Change changes the way I have to be. I adapt to change; but change never adapts to me, or else there would be no change. This I believe: change is the only way to grow.
I cannot claim this belief as originally my own. In fact, my old school’s motto is “That which is cut down grows back stronger”. As freshman, this motto was taken in by each of my and my classmates’ bodies’ senses. But as freshman, we did not necessarily understand the entire message. We were at Delbarton. We could not be cut down. We were the people everybody else envied; we were even legendary at our old schools. And despite all this, we were cut down. We were just another legend, just like everyone else.
Delbarton was hard, but it was certainly not the first time I experienced change. I had already moved from a quiet town in southern New Hampshire to the action-packed state of New Jersey. Needless to say, I had to make a few adjustments. And I did. I was the quietest kid in the class, the one who always had a book in his hand and not the most useful on a kickball team. Maybe it was because of the move, or maybe it was just a pain of growing up, but at any rate, there was little sympathy for this type of kid in Jersey. It was natural selection at its finest in middle school. I adjusted, or I was left behind.
Fortunately, I was not completely left behind by my classmates. I graduated middle school as a relatively prominent member of the class of ’04. This pattern was, however, only to be repeated upon my entrance to Delbarton. I left one bubble, only to be violently tossed into another, more challenging one. Again, survival of the fittest became a familiar concept. Yet somehow, adjusting did not take all of four years, as it had last time. Although I did leave after sophomore year, I do not feel as though I gave up on Delbarton. After a difficult freshman year, I fell into my place there entering my succeeding year.
I still do not like change. I still get uneasy at the thought of it. Although I have been a part of a wide variety of bubbles, I have adored each of them. I never like the concept of entering a new bubble, and starting all my hard work over. Some people can charismatically dive into new bubbles; I envy those people. Change is difficult, but that which is cut down does grow back stronger. I now both brace for and embrace change, because change is what I believe in.