Seasons of Life

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

- Alan Cohen

The world was meant for change, and with it growth. Seasons come and go - dispensing with the old life and creating new, budding life. With every season there is beauty: snow glittering in the full moon, the smell of summer on your skin, the enticing mystery of fall, and the new intoxication of spring.

Life is this way as well. The seasons of life, however short or long, have beauty within themselves, though they at many times do not feel beautiful. I am only in the first season of my life, when I look at the long run. 23 years is not a long time to roam this earth. There are many lessons I have left to learn, but this is the season of learning.

The college season is the time we set out on our own. We discover ourselves, how strong we can be and how weak we really are. We discover our true loves and our true hates. We discover the people we are supposed to be.

The season of love - new love - is much like spring. It is intoxicating. Consuming the entirety of our lives. Every moment is spent with that person. Every moment away is like a century. Everything he says is romantic, funny, or sweet. There are deep conversations that last long into the midnight - and the masks are taken away from our faces as we endeavor to reveal our true selves to this special person.

The season of breakup is equally full of feeling. The kind of feeling you wish didn't exist. Change. Fear. You take back up the mask - simply for survival's sake and continue on with a false stregnth. You see him - he's picked up the mask as well and you both see through the facades, though neither of you wishes to point out the falsity of the encounter.

Time moves on. Hurts vanish. Love fades. And you become stronger for them.