changes

I've been pestered for months now to start a blog, and here I am, starting a blog. Here it is.

But where to start.

Thoughts have been bouncing around in my head for several hours now, as I contemplated which words would grace my first post. I'm not sure I've even decided yet what my blog will be. But the closer I came to creating it, the more I knew what this particular entry would consist of.

You see, I realized something. This blog is new, sure. But the blog that is my life is getting older each and every day. So while these words are new, they aren't really all that new.

changes.

It's a really powerful word, changes. The word itself implies different, new directions. Changes happen daily around all of us, and I'm increasingly more aware of these in my own life. I'm weeks away from beginning my last semester of my undergraduate degree. What happens after it finishes? I can only be absolutely certain of one thing- my life will change. Changes will occur. I might not live within eyeshot of the magnificent Pacific sunsets any longer. I probably won't spend most of my life walking to and from the music department building. Whether I want to admit it or not, even my friends will change.

It scares me. It scares me a lot. Yet as much as it scares me, I've done it before. I've changed.

Before I started sticking these words together, I read an autobiography I wrote at the beginning of college. My freshman year, to be exact. It's fourteen pages. Fourteen pages of my life, as I understood them but 4 semesters ago.

Two years. Two years ago. As I read through the pages I thought to myself how different I might write this passage, how that word choice feels awkward now, how this whole section doesn't really seem so relevant anymore.

Then it hit me. Those pages weren't me anymore. The Zach Christy that wrote those had long faded, not unlike the winter season's imminent passing. Like the wind, the story was and is exceedingly intricate, but always changing.

Since that time, I have changed how I view myself. I've changed how I view my faith. My friends have changed. My home has changed. Even my freaking choice of clothing has changed (for the better, I believe).

Change is good. Change is necessary to become a well-rounded, complete person. Changes don't alter who you are as a person, but rather add on layers.

If you know anything about me, you know that there are some things that don't change. The most integral of these is music. It would be shameful of me to create something without a connection to music, so here goes.

My favorite piece of music has been Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland for many years now. It begins with a single, delicate unison note. Slowly, different layers are added, building the identity of the piece. Dissonance is not ignored, and there are those few sour, unexpected notes that are thrown into the mix. This isn't much unlike life. Tragedy happens. Horrible days occur. Even bad hairstyles can contribute to the dissonance of life. But so much of Copland's masterpiece relies on simplicity and deeply moving music. If we step back from our lives, we'll realize that SO much of the complexity comes from our own clouded lenses, and that there really isn't much more to it than the different notes adding into the strains of the orchestra of life. Appalachian Spring is what it is because it CHANGES. It changes keys, changes moods, tempos.

So does my life.

It changes.