"You don't have to take the broken road. You can turn around and come back home."
I've had the mentality that because I have started acting a certain way in a situation or relationship, I have to keep acting that way. I'm a writer, and I've drilled character consistency into my writing so hard that I've ended up drilling it into myself. Yet that's not how we're meant to be as humans, is it? We're meant to change, to grow. I embrace that growth if it's going to Mass more often or praying more regularly, but when it comes to living every day and changing how I act in relationships, I'm scared to change.
Honestly, will they think I'm weird if I pull back when I realize I've been flirting too much? When I've been grumpy? I get mired in my own muck and unconsciously tell myself that it's too bad for me to feel that way because once I've begun treating someone a certain way, I can't change.
Why should that stop me from changing anyways if it's RIGHT? It shouldn't. In theory, I'm willing to try this change, but in practice, I feel so weak.
Politicians probably feel like this a lot. When they make a mistake, it's held over them for their entire career, even if it happened decades ago. How is that fair? Humans are meant to change! Regardless of my hold-up with it, change for the better is to be encouraged, and it is definitely not impossible! If people don't believe that, people will never change for the better because they'll believe they can't.
You don't have to be stuck in a rut. You can turn around. You can change. And one of the ways that you can help others and yourself to do it too is to believe that you and they can.
-Tina
