WHY ARE WE SO AFRAID OF CHANGE?

Change is inevitable. It's like seasons or growing older. It's part of life and there really isn't much we can do to prevent it from knocking on our doors. When it does arrive though, we don't want to answer. We'd rather stay in the comfort of the imaginary walls we've surrounded ourselves by. What we think is safe is sacred to us and we tend to refuse to let anything in that might disrupt this false idea of what is keeping us afloat. Why don't we just go along with nature?
As children, we change schools. We move from elementary school, to middle school, to high school and most of the time to college. Remember how nervous you were on the first day of school? Will they make fun of my name during role call? Will they laugh at my clothes? Will I fit in? In the end, we end up making new friends and eventually feel pretty comfortable. It was scary at first but it all worked out in the end, right? We grow and form new relationships and learn about ourselves and the world around us. At the time we didn't have a choice because you have to go to school.
As adults, nobody is forcing us to change anymore and we end up stuck in a place that we think may be the best we can achieve but it's not. If we stop lying to ourselves to justify our lives then we would see that there is so much more to accomplish. But the thought of taking a step in a direction with no road signs is a nuisance. We don't know what the outcome will be so we just close our eyes and go down the same old path we're used to. This will result in regret when we are old and wiser. I should have asked them to marry me? Why didn't I take that internship in London? Why didn't I go see my mother when she needed me? I should have bought that house when I had the chance? The list goes on and on and on.
Anything in this life that seems like it's going to take a lot of hard work will usually leave you pleasantly surprised. Instant gratification or decisions you already know the answer to are soooooo last season. Now I want you to do something for me. I want you to read this poem by Robert Frost called "The Road Less Traveled." Yes you do have the time. It's a short poem and if you have time to chat on Facebook or update your MySpace then you have time for this which is slightly more productive, in my humble opinion.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Well, what do you think? I say take the road less traveled. Be brave and get rid of the cowardly mask society shields itself with. Can you handle it?
Till next time...