Room to Change

It's no secret that "Drops of Jupiter" is my favorite song. I can't really explain why, but I just really love it. One of the best lines is "[She] reminds me that there's room to change" yea ehhh ehh ehh ehh yeahh.... I've always liked the optimism of it, there is no point at which you cannot change your mind, yourself, your life. But where in life is there this room for change?

Today, in my Theatre and the Church class we were discussing how in acting, "what's true today doesn't have to be true tomorrow". Our choice for a character can change as we grow and learn more about that role. There is freedom to change and to mess up. This led to us talking about how society tells us not to make mistakes, that we have to do things perfectly the first time. Consequently, every time we mess up we throw ourselves into a trench of embarrassment and shame. Why is it so wrong to make a mistake? How do we learn? How do we change and grow as people if we can't make mistakes or change our minds about who we want to be? The people around us often stunt our growth. We stunt the growth of others as well. We place expectations on one another based on the past and we give them little room to change those notions we have of them. We expect our younger siblings to be immature and in need of guidance, but the truth is those siblings grow up and maybe don't need our advice constantly in their ears. We expect our friends to remain constant throughout a friendship, but people change, for the good and bad, and we need to accept that. If we're unwilling to lift our expectations off of people and let them change and be who they want to then we will drive a wedge into our relationship that endangers it's future. Perhaps that's the hardest part of changing yourself, convincing others to accept that change.