By Brittany Davis
We know life moves forward. The chapters of your past close, and new chapters get written 
everyday. It goes forward because, well, there’s no real way for it to go back. So you move on — and you should. But somewhere along the way a disconnect happened. A disconnect between taking a next step in your life, and what that new life actually means. When life opens a door, you’re supposed to explore what’s behind it. And when opportunities arise you’re supposed to seize them. But sometimes you have to stop and think, these things are happening for me, great, but at what cost? Is taking that step forward, going to make you take two steps back in the end?
Sure, sometimes the gain outweighs the risk so you do it. Sometimes that step can literally change your life. But it’s important to acknowledge all the changes. Not just that one outcome you’re so focused on. Is the thing you’re walking towards worth changing your life completely? And if it is, down the road when the dust settles, are you going to be okay with what or who you sacrificed to get it? Somewhere along the way this idea of going forward became the same as leaving things behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s possible to do one without the other. To make changes in your life that better you, without losing the people and things that are important to you. To get the life you want, without erasing the life you were living.
Now, it’s true that sometimes you just out grow people. Sometimes the things that were once important to you simply no longer are. But if the people and things are still pieces to the puzzle that is your life, what’s the point of purposely making them not fit? If you don’t have to, what’s the point of leaving what’s important behind? You have the ability to open a new door of your life, and still bring people with you. To write that next chapter, and introduce new characters while still maintaining the old. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be either or. It’s possible to create a new life, without destroying the old one. Especially if this change is so dramatic. Especially if there’s a chance it fails. You don’t want to cut out the people you’re going to need if the life you’re creating doesn’t work out. It’s possible to move forward, without leaving people behind. All it takes is a choice. To bring the people you care about along for your journey, instead of forcing them to be absent from your destination.
