“Stand still with me.”
Someone once said that the only thing constant is change, which makes absolute sense. We are born, and from that moment we shift, we grow, we change, from day to day, from year to year, and for the rest of our lives. We encounter others who are also growing and changing, becoming their supreme selves, and then shifting some more. It’s fascinating, really, the processes that move us along through this thing called life.
And this universe we live in — it also changes. It moves at a frenetic pace, even if sometimes we seem like snails on its surface, even if at times the clock never seems to move. Somewhere, somehow, things are happening. People are born every millisecond. People die nearly as fast, dropping like flies all over the world. The job market shifts like sand, morphing into new jobs every day, phasing out old jobs that are now irrelevant.
We get older and we realize the things that are most important to us change as well. Friends come and friends go, while some stay around and change with us. Our relationships move and adapt themselves to us or they disappear. Sometimes it’s years later before we understand that anything has happened. That’s how dynamic change always is, in that it sneaks up on us, then blows by us in a whirlwind.
I heard somewhere before that if we’re not moving forward we are just standing still. But that’s not true. It’s impossible to stand still in this world, in this life. When we stand still we are really just moving backwards, perhaps infinitesimally, but true nonetheless. That doesn’t stop us from trying to stand still, from trying to make the world stop for just a second, for just us. So we can exhale.
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 
How do you know standing still is moving backwards? I mean really, we are on a rock that is hurdling through space… wouldn’t it depend on the direction we are facing when we are standing still?
Not physically standing still. Standing still in life.
I feel like I’m standing still in life right now. Stuck. But I don’t in any way associate that with moving backwards
It was merely my opinion.
I know. I was arguing your point as a smart-alec. My ornery students rubbed off on me today.
I had wonderful students today. Their first essay of the semester was due and most of them were diligent. Most had also been waiting to exhale.
I think college students are at a whole different production level than inner city high school kids. However, I got senior essay drafts from almost half of my advocates and they did write betetr content-wise than they have in previous years. But the refusal to capitalize names, “i,” and places is a little overwhleming for me.
I will never understand this “texting” mentality. If I can text it then I can put it in my formal writing. I just saw a “wanna” in a college essay I’m grading right now.
“I’m fittina be a architect cause I want to make moneys and buy big house like Ted from How i met your mother.”
That’s quality writing right there.