The Price of Change

When I was young, me and my family always go out of town some 60 km away from the city. Not a very big number in distance terms, but when you live in a city(I grew up and spent all my life in a city) 'every kilometer away from the city makes a difference'. That's very true especially when you live in  a big city, once you're out you get alienated by what you see outside. It's like a different dimension, but just a mere 60 kilometers away. 

But in my case, that gap is now starting to close rapidly as the city and the province 60 kilometers apart are starting to converge at least physically. Back when I was young, my grandmother used to tell stories  about how time has changed. She often mentioned situations before which are quite unbelievable for me, like living a life without electricity, having almost no food, the ultra-conservative lifestyle of people, and even the absence of roads and vehicles when they were young and living in the so-called province. The province she used live when she was younger is now virtually unrecognizable from what she described it as what it used to be. Now, people have the luxury of what city-dwellers have, such as appliances, gadgets, telephones, and even the internet. The young ones listen to music and follow the trends and behavior of what city-dwellers have.

Most older people which are most likely conservative tend to view social change in any form as negative.  Whether it produces generally good results, people tend to have a negative view about change. We often remember times as what it used to be; like playing with our friends outside when there's no class tomorrow, spending unlimited time in the phone, spending fruitful vacation on the province with our cousins every summer, and so on. As we grow up we see changes all around, people no longer play outside and tend to lean on online or video related games, people no longer use the phone like what it used to be and have IM or Skype instead, and vacations are diminishing in favor of summer classes and related stuff.

Technology and differing lifestyles are the most common pointed culprit of all of these changes, that if you look at it in a broad dimension. But in reality change is everywhere, every minute and every instance. Change is as frequent as seeing someone today and not seeing him tomorrow. The only sad thing is that, we are more likely not to notice these small changes until it starts to pile up in front of us. It's like losing a coin, at first it's almost unnoticeable but as more coins start missing in every passing time you start noticing you lost quite a number of money. Another example of this is slowly losing a friend, at first he starts getting different of what he always used to be but you tend to view him as the same person  like what he always is. However, as time passes by the differences start to get noticeable and you can no longer connect to him like what it used to be. Then, you lose him.

The main reason why people have a negative view on change and thus see the price of change negatively is because our minds tend to rehash good old times and compare it with our current situations. Good or bad, the current situation is always viewed as precarious by human beings. I don't know why but they have some negative connotation on it. But in reality, like nothing has changed, how things change is not totally bad; just different. When you lose a friend, you gain another opportunity of meeting other people and getting close to other people. Something that you miss when you're too pre-occupied with your past friend. When children nowadays no longer play games you used to do when you were younger, they find something else that is more trendy and thus suits them. Who cares? if that's what enjoys them, so let them. 

I often hear people, and even my past colleagues about how things used to be before. We enjoy rehashing good old times and laugh about past mistakes and hardships. Some thoughts as crazy as having a time capsule and try to go back in time for just a day or a week starts coming-in in an instant. I try to tell them about this, but whatever... i'm not a psychologist, can't explain then neither.