Once I was sitting in my bedroom, and my HVAC stopped working. In the dead of winter, my room was freezing cold. I am the type of person who needs a 75-degree household during any season. Nonetheless, my HVAC stopped working, and I was cold. 

It was during this time that I realized I might have to contact someone to come fix what had withered away. While this sounds completely reasonable, to me, I was afraid. 

What if there is something much more wrong than I know? What if when I try to turn it on again it catches on fire? What if the reason it is broken is because of something that I did?

What if, what if, and more what ifs. 

It turns out that I just needed to clean the filter, which, unbeknownst to me, I did not know how to do. With the help of others, it was fixed in the matter of a couple of days. 

Besides the story of my totally fine, needed-dusted HVAC, I learned a valuable lesson that I guess I had turned the other cheek over the course of my life[LR1] . Change — though annoying —must happen so that our opportunities of growth can become endless. 

There have been countless experiences throughout my life that had every right to teach me the inevitability of change; however, when I was presented with something so miniscule, it forced me to pay attention. Usually, when our lives change rapidly, we try to avoid it with activities, sleep, friends or a shift in thinking. 

The HVAC could not have been reconciled with either four of these options. Moreover, I had to face it head-on. I know I may seem dramatic because, in all seriousness, it is just a heating and cooling unit. Trust me, I know. For some reason, it really threw me over the edge. Maybe this is because there were already so many other things piling over me; maybe this was because I was just upset that it was happening; maybe I did not care at all, and I was taking my frustration out on my poor HVAC that needed a little freshening. 

Without recognizing at the time, something in my life had to change in some way to dispose of the mundane that we accept as normal. A mundane lifestyle is good until you reach the point of a lack of growth, and it is very recognizable. 

For example, this past winter break, I did the same thing every day. It was the first time that I did not take any courses over the break, and I thought I was going to have an infinitely positive and relaxed mindset. I woke up, I made food, I took a shower, I watched TV and I went to sleep. It sounds like the perfect way to recoup after a long, busy semester. However, I missed the feeling of needing things to do. 

My life was not changing whatsoever, and I came to realize this was the product of an absence of mental growth. I think it is useful and necessary to take a break when it is due, but when we expect normalcy, we forget the changes that make us who we are.

Of course, it can be depressing, irritating or infuriating. But it could also be exciting, productive or advancing. Our lives are set up to prepare us for unique experiences that can only happen if we welcome the idea of change as transformity. 

When I was 5, I went to kindergarten. When I was 16, I accidentally knocked the exhaust pipe off my father’s car. Both changes were needed to teach me more about myself. Although they both made me nervous, and I did not know what the outcome would be, I became stronger and more coherent about the necessity of change. 

I often think that we, as instinctual beings, think of our lives as linear, straight lines. Maybe we wish that we could have a break, but maybe we should embrace the ups and downs. The ebbs and flows. If we do not, what is the point? 

Life will do what it wants to you. It is your choice to want that change more than life wants it for you. It is at that moment that you will grow a new leaf and learn to water it. Keep it alive. 

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