I ran across this article, Chill Out: Dealing with Change by Ed Shapiro, and it resonated a lot. I spent so many years trying to climb out of intense feelings of alienation, wanting to have many friends like "normal" people. But allowing the feeling of being "different" to simply be, without judgement and without putting energy into trying to escape was, ultimately, a way out. Or better put, a way of rising above.

In light of one of the U.S. presidential candidates espousing "change" as an national calling, and the current caustic mindset of some world leaders, it's easy to forget that change can be difficult and not always what we bargained for. Hence the perennial struggle between the liberal and conservative world view. But beyond these ideologies, change, painful as it may be, eventually helps us grow. And that's fortunate since it's inevitable.