BY RADHIKA CHALIKAVADA

What do we know about change? How do we feel about change?

Imagine sitting at your favourite restaurant and ordering the same thing again and again. We all have our favourites that we excitedly relish a couple of time. But what if we don’t order anything but that, forever? How would we feel? The same can be applied to our lives.

Now more than ever, in self-isolation, the idea of change is very appealing. Something to break up our usual routine. When self-isolation began, there might have been many like me who were secretly glad to have a reason to be home. Hoping to get a “break” from studying and going to uni, and most of all, doing things that we have always wanted to do but never had the time. Now, a few months later, the same idea of wrapping up in a warm fluffy blanket binging Netflix doesn’t seem that appealing. Something that you looked forward to a couple of months ago isn’t something you look forward to anymore.

But thinking about it, I realised I was satisfied. I had moments where I was as exhilarated as I imagined. For example, during my first clinical skills class. Even during my first anatomy class. During my first week of self-isolation, when I binged a series I was hoping to get to for a while. However, this wasn’t a constant occurrence. It didn’t last to my week 15 anatomy class. It didn’t last to my holidays, when I finally had the opportunity for endless entertainment. Why was that?

Monotony. Or put another way, I was too used to it. And we may already know this. That such a turn of events is normal. That somewhere through the track, an exciting thing is not so exciting anymore. So, what does that mean for us?

For me I realised that the moments where I felt that excitement was when there was something new. Something I wasn’t used to. There was a change. Many of us may associate change with bigger and grand ideals. But for me it was simply something that breaks monotony. Little things that change up a routine. I realised giving up my free time or my course wasn’t the answer. Life-altering changes aren’t the answers. Rather it was the little things that mattered. Little things that spice up a normal thing.

Ever since this epiphany, I made several little changes to my usual routine – be it in my studies or my day-to-day life. Some changes were as simple as switching to group study sessions and swapping checking social media the first thing in the morning for an early morning walk to see the sunrise. In a few weeks, this might become a routine and I might not be as motivated for them as I was before. Not because I don’t like them, but because I might be too used to them and it might be time to find something new. As mentioned before, we may already know about this. The idea of little changes may be trivial. However, when noticed and appreciated, they go a long way. And we all need reminders. No matter how treasured something was, we need to recognise that if our present feelings do not match up to what we imagined, it’s not because there was something wrong. It is just because we are somehow attuned to it. A little change is all we need, and it is completely normal and human.