Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

School is starting back up this week for most of the kids in Muncie. Ball State’s fall semester begins in a few weeks, and soon college students will be swarming the northside Walmart and Target. I love the start of the school year. I loved it as a college student, and I love it now. New books, new pencils, new things to learn. Sure, there’s a little extra shopping inconvenience, but it always makes my heart happy when a school year begins and the weather starts to foretell of the new things to come.

I bring this up because Kim recently asked me what makes me feel excitement. Not being particularly well-known for my excitability, I had to think about it for 24 hours before I had a response. I thought of a few times I have felt excited. The launch of Two Birds! The first page in a new notebook! The night before a big snowstorm! And yes, the start of fall semester. It isn’t the things themselves that excite me. It is the common thread the runs beneath them. Can you guess what it is?

It’s possibility. I get excited about possibility.

There can’t be new possibilities without change so maybe change is exciting too. Maybe I like change.

Parents face changes at the start of a school year, not just children. It may be filled with possibility, but it is also filled with grief. A youngest child starting kindergarten or starting college. An oldest child entering the workforce. Change can be scary because change is also tied to loss. When circumstances change, you’re always giving up something, whether it is at the start of a school year or the end of a relationship or the loss of a job.

And this is exactly what I love about life coaching. Clients tend to reach out to me at times when they are facing change. Standing in a liminal space often filled with confusion and heartache, they ask me to accompany them as they explore the possibilities of what comes next. Change is the first step of a new adventure, the movement from one space into another. And it is ripe for reflection, for anticipation, and for personal growth!

Anxiety tells us to fear the possibilities, but growth requires us to embrace them. As David Bowie wisely said, “Turn and face the strange. Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older.” We don’t have forever, but we do have right now.

There are so many new things to learn when you’re experiencing change. I look forward to exploring the possibilities with you.