University of Sussex Students' Newspaper

Just give it a chance

The Badger

ByThe Badger

Nov 10, 2014

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Dear Badger,

Change; it comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes we look for it, sometimes we avoid it and sometimes it comes when we least expect it and when we least desire it. But whenever change does finally make an appearance we should greet it with a warm smile and make it feel welcome. Before I was thirteen I had changed schools four times and the last time I did, I not only changed schools but I changed countries as well.

I moved from Vancouver all the way to Malaga. When my parents first broke the news to me, I didn’t really grasp the gravity of the situation. After all I was only twelve and it seemed more as if we were embarking on a really long holiday. I never really imagined that when I arrived I was actually going to have to learn a new language, integrate into a new culture and basically start an entirely new life. But looking back maybe that was a blessing in disguise, for if I actually knew what obstacles were awaiting me I would have never agreed to leave- not that I had a choice in the matter anyway.

I can’t sugar coat it, the first three years were not pleasant. My crucial early adolescence years were spent struggling for people to understand me and for me to understand them, literally. But the great thing is with time, after a while things naturally get better, because that is all it can do. I had eventually adjusted to the radical culture change and integrated myself enough to feel part of something again. Even though my reality had changed, I had changed and just about everything around me had changed, everything in a strange way had returned back to normal. Once I embraced the change for what it was; life, nothing seemed as devastating anymore.

Now a big change can mean a lot of things for different people, it can be changing your lifestyle, changing your degree, your job, your house, your partner, even your hair. But whatever form it comes in, good or bad, wanted or unwanted, seize it.Change is a natural human process, it is supposed to happen.

Change is good. It challenges us to question everything we know and everything we don’t. It pushes us to abandon comfort and enter the adventure that is the unknown.

Change can sometimes be intense and unsettling, but it won’t always be. If nothing changed, what would be the point all of this?

Change exposes us to the potential we never knew we had.

Sometimes I like to look at change in the same way I go for a walk; the more spontaneous turns I take, the more entertaining the journey. I keep on taking different paths to get somewhere solely unfamiliar. And when I am there I don’t stop, I keep on making new turns, again and again until I end up in a place that is completely unrecognizable.

Even though I am technically lost, it doesn’t really matter, because I know, eventually, I’ll find my way back home.

Jemada Reygas

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