The Road to Change

Change is not teleportation.

Sometimes, I have this overwhelming urge to change myself. Maybe, most of us have this feeling at some point of time or the other. Sometimes I steel myself an decide that tomorrow I will get up a changed man, turn a new leaf. At other times, I wait, I wait for that "Eureka!" moment, that moment of epiphany when suddenly everything will become clear to me and I will know what to do and how to do it.

Today, I realized that change is not a teleport

When we have to get to some place that we want to get to, we have to traverse the path to get there. When life or circumstance puts us on the road to some place, regardless of whether we want to go there or not, we still have to traverse that path, even if we have to do it kicking and screaming. We can walk or run, ride a bike or drive a car, take a train or a plane. Some among the less fortunate would have to crawl. Others may get the chance to be propelled by tons and tons of rocket fuel or go in a supersonic jet. But whatever the case may be, you would have to take the step, see the scenes whiz by on the road to where you are going. But you cannot cross the seas in the blink of an eye. You can not even cross the room that you are sitting in in the blink of an eye. Teleportation only exists in science fiction.

Today I realized that I used to think change is like teleportation.

So, I can wait all my life for a moment of epiphany. It may even come to me some day. But it will not be like teleportation. It will be like a ride in a rocket. Anti-gravitational forces, five or six times will be crushing me from every side, my head will be feel like it would rather explode, my heart will pulse, my veins will strain under the rush of blood. But after that moment, there will be a sense of clarity, a vision of the world from outer space maybe. Or maybe I will just travel on foot, step by painful step and I will enjoy the scenery and someday realize that part by part, the parts of me have changed and I have become a new man and hopefully, a better man.

Change is not teleportation