My least favorite backhanded compliment is, “Never change.” When people say this, they never mean it to be backhanded. What they’re trying to say is that they like you so much that they never want you to be different. The truth is that’s simply impossible; change is unavoidable.

Growing up, I always feared change. I didn’t like when things differed from what I was used to. I didn’t like starting a new school year, having a new teacher in dance class, or even just getting a new set of bed sheets. I wasn’t used to these things, and their foreignness felt striking in my humdrum world.

However, when I got to high school I began to face change more frequently. I was trying new extracurriculars, experiencing new classroom styles and the people around me were beginning to change as well. This exposure taught me something I never thought I’d learn: that change is a good thing.

Often times, a connotation of change is that if something changed, it is now different in a bad way. Thus, one method people will use to try to knock others down is by telling them that they’ve changed. However, even though I can’t say that all change is good, people have to be allowed to diverge from their personal norm.

Growth requires change. This can take the form of personal changes that show the growth of a human being or community changes that show the growth of a group of people. The change that comes along with learning and growing as a person is not a bad thing, though people often will try to allude to it in that light.

Change means an opportunity for new experiences. Fearing things we’re not comfortable with means that no one could ever find new things to love (or hate). Running away from the unknown is no way to live a happy life.

Exposure to the unknown helps to foster flexibility, mental strength and even new beginnings. Falling into a steady routine sets up a life of living on autopilot. While this can feel convenient at first, repetition confines man to live inside a box labeled “comfort zone.” Never venturing out of this box means that tiny box is all you’ll ever know.

Life is too short to fear mixing things up a bit. Change is what facilitates our society to evolve into better and brighter things. I challenge you to get out and experience some interesting change today.