Like this:

Following last years American race to the white house, everyone by now must be familiar with the word ‘change’ if not the whole phrase’ change has come to America”, coined by the then president-elect of the United States, Barrack Obama. Good. I wasn’t feeling like explaining the word, leave alone the phrase. And this is not about Obama either. I think we have heard enough of the man too. I don’t know what this excerpt is going to turn out to be when am done with it, but I can tell you one thing, this very sentence in which the word excerpt shows up twice, is going to be of some sort of relevance by the time am done.
Every once in a while we all have to make some changes in our lives. If not, we have to accommodate some which are either made for us or happen around us. To be honest with you, I don’t like changes, especially those that I have to accommodate. I like being in my comfort zone, which takes me quite a while to get into. I don’t like trying out new stuff, products or even meeting new people. This is for various and reasonable reasons, none of which have anything to do with me not liking where I find myself after making these changes or trying out these new products. I tried out banana juice when I was just used to apple juice. Now I can’t live without banana juice and I don’t want to give up apple juice either. It’s quite expensive. I tried conscious reggae music when I was just used to banging Tupac on my tape deck, and now I can’t tell what comes before the other. Sometimes I listen to both of them simultaneously just so I can appease both spirits. There was a time when chat rooms were something close to the idea of aliens to me, they didn’t exist. And now, well, now am just trying to detach myself from a leeching behavior that cost me a lot of time not to mention a lot of money and earned me the name’chatmaster’’. Most of you should be addicts too; it’s how I met you if you know what I mean.
As you can see I am not a stranger to changes. Contrary to what I said earlier about me not liking changes, it would appear as if I adore them. Now the above listed changes may seem petty but try finding banana juice in a place which predominantly grows apples. Plus if you find out that banana juice isn’t all that healthy. Or try convincing your apple juice dealer that you have gone bananas. He is bound to go bananas too, though for his case, not by choice. And it’s not fair putting someone out of business. He has family to feed. Petty as they may appear, changes may have long lasting if not lifelong effects on you and the people around you. Still that doesn’t excuse their absence in our lives. Changes are uncomfortable, disturbing, annoying, inevitable and above all quite vital. Changes we make and those made for us.
How often do you meet people you haven’t met in a while and you hear them say’ gosh, you haven’t changed’’? Now, if you are like me back then when I used to loathe change, you greet this with a grin that spreads from one ear to the other. If you, like me back then used to do everything you can to avoid change. Including changing. But if you are like the new me, a person embracing change and movement, then you do feel like placing a well spread slap across their face and tell them to observe closely. Can’t they see that your at least hairline has receded a few millimeters back? Nobody stays the same. Be it emotionally, physically or any other area in your life. Good or bad, chosen or laid upon, carefully calculated or surprisingly there, change is going to show up at your doorstep.
Whatever change you make in your life, whichever area it maybe, one thing is clear, it has to be noticed. Biblically, you don’t light a lamp and place it under a table. No, you let it shine and serve its purpose. If not, your change is futile. And since when talking about change, futility has no place, then we say your change is destructive. But supposing you can’t stand a lot of light when the lamp is lit? What do you do? Do you walk out? Maybe get some shades? Could be. Whatever you do, you’d be dealing with it.

It’s the same with the changes imposed upon us, we have to deal with them and find a way of getting something positive out of them. And you may find yourself walking away from friends or vice versa, you may walk alone for a while, you may cry, fly or go through the valley of the shadow of death, but after all is said and done, its you as the final product that counts. How do you come out? How do you stand out? Are you broken, tattered and worn out? Or are you strong, stable and still standing? The choice is yours. And most of the time when you set out to conquer new heights and rise up to various challenges, you have no idea what the end result is going to be, just like when I started out writing this passage here. What I started out to do, is not quite what it came out to be, at least not exactly. But, I started and now am done.

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