#(positve(

I found out

That flowers

Bloom at that night of noon

Sand breaks

Waves go towards the left

And the right

Morning

And midnight

The surfers wake

Coffee

And the sand

The breaks

We swam

Naked in the surf

Sand and salt

Footprints

Walking off

Into the north

Or south

I thought

We’d

Remember

The when and the where

The Music

Floating in the air

I found out

The flower growing

If you’re reading this, at least one of you is probably rolling your eyes, wondering if I’ve ever even touched a redemption arc—whether in a Geronimo Stilton book or otherwise.

“Yeah, well, that’s life. People change.” It’s a phrase that we’ve all heard a million times. It’s one of those phrases that sits in the back of your throat, dry and bitter, because it never means what you want it to mean. The band-aid slapped over every wound, no matter how deep.

Your friends stopped talking to you? People change. That YouTuber you loved swapped genres? People change. That artist who used to draw your favorite characters? Gone. People change, mate. Your parents stop looking at you like you matter? People fucking change. Everyone’s a lot more bitter and melancholic than before? Well, that’s because people change.

And somewhere along the way, you start to believe it: change is a thief. It sneaks in, it takes away what you love, and leaves behind nothing but a cold, lonelier you.

And for the longest time, I believed that was the truth. The whole truth. People changing always made things worse off, always left me worse off. All those friends I lost and that misery gained – there was undeniable proof. And I continued to think that way, until a fucking Reddit post of all things.

It said something along the lines of: ‘Actions have consequences, yes. But that applies to anything. Good actions can have good consequences, not just the bad. Good karma exists.’ And it felt like the most ridiculous view altering statement, but it was. At least for me, it was. And so, I vowed to take note of other phrases and here we are.

My friends that swore up and down that they’d never touch anime are bigger fans than me now. Friends that used to leave me in the dust and not even glance at me and who did not care are now better people and they chat with me! The neighbor next door who sneered at me and my brother like we’d infect her now comes to chat with us. My favorite author ended up changing fandoms and it brought me into a new fandom – all of these are pretty tame examples, I know.

But that’s just the thing, change is tame. Well, at least most of it is. And people keep changing, there’s no final permanence of self. People don’t need grand reason to change, they don’t need you to shut the door, to give them an ultimatum – most of them just grow, they choose better, they grow to be better, to be different.

And yeah, there’s definitely bad change in the world. There is definitely change that slips past the space between your ribs purely so it can crush your heart. But I think the problem is that we’ve just associated the term ‘people change’ to everything negative, so much so that it’s considered that way. The same way we immediately think of punishment with karma and ‘actions have consequences.’ And I think mindset is incredibly important. Change isn’t always the thief you think it is, sometimes it’s the hand that pulls you out of the wreckage, even if you’re too scared to reach for it.

So, take those words. Let it marinate in your mind. If you take something away from this internet spiral, take away this: people can change. Not always. Not perfectly. But sometimes. And when they do, it’s enough to make you believe again.

SPARKLE JUMPSCARE....!!!!