Moving to Vancouver from my hometown was quite an adjustment. It wasn't really culture shock; they're hardly very far apart and I'd been here many times in my life. But moving here, where I hardly knew anyone and didn't have a job (and didn't end up getting one for quite some time) was tough.

I admit I didn't do that great a job of it for a long time. Kept to myself, mostly. After a while I realized that my long walks were making me familiar with my neighbourhood, and I started allowing myself to meet new people. (And obviously, eventually getting a job helped take the stress off in a big way.)

It still seems odd to me, but I remember driving home one day and hearing that someone had been hurt in an accident in another Vancouver neighbourhood. My first thought was "oh no, I hope it isn't anyone I know." (It wasn't.) And my second thought was "wait a minute...I know people here now!" And I think that's the first time I realized that Vancouver was really my home.

tl;dr ♥

Ooooh, good topic. I'll get this when I get home.

My job has forced me to deal with change for most of my career. I've been at 4 different schools, and there is always something to adapt to in the school culture and how things work. Then there have been curriculum shifts, and team changes, and stuff like that. The good news is that while some of this change wasn't great, a lot of it has been positive. I've also gotten really used to just dealing with things never being the same (maybe too used to it?), so when administrators ask for something new/different I can usually just roll with it instead of freaking out. To be honest, I lose my patience with coworkers who struggle with change because it feels very natural to me.

@-j.: Not at all tl! I totally did read & love the fact that you allowed yourself to adapt at such a natural pace. Long walks are the best, aren't they? It's funny how when you have no destination at all sometimes is when the blessings kind of appear in your path.

So glad you found a home away from home & now I just have to visit so you can show me around! ♥

@little_p: Yay, looking forward to your response!

@erica: Have you always been that comfortable with change? Does the challenge of adapting motivate you? What advice would you give to someone who is not comfortable with change or has a little bit of trouble with a lot of change in a short amount of time?

I know very few people who enjoy and embrace change (including me). BUT change does get easier when you're ready for it, and when you realize that lots of things change all the time (well, especially in my job) and when things don't change, you get into a rut. I don't know if this helps? I mostly know that I'm okay with change not so much because I love it, but because I'm just really accustomed to it. So my main advice is to not get used to anything. Or something. That's terrible advice, really.

this one time in the appalachians 2 wolves were after me. But instead of being like oh those are wolves, i was more like hmmm how can make it seem like i'm part of their hallucination. I sort of walked carefully and shouted. Moral of the story: Dont feed wolves.

@Man in the Long Black Coat. that works for coyotes as well

well, my horses force me to change a lot. they dictate where i live, how much sleep I get, etc... but they also kinda force me to be a different person- one that is better I think.

I've had to be a better "people person" over the years in order to make me a better trainer. I'm less nervous around people, by A LOT. I knew that if I wanted to stay in horses, I was going to have to learn how to work the humans. I'm more likely to stand up for things I believe, but only regarding horse stuff, because the well-being of the horse is a stake. Otherwise, I usually don't care what people do.

They forced me to learn to travel a lot by myself, and to pull a 2-horse bumper hitch in the smokey mountains at 1 in the morning and have to turn that thing around without falling off a cliff.

yea, horses are definitely my teachers. and they are tyrants about it.

I've got to see that movie about the horse trainer guy. His story is a bit different because he had to stop being and bastard and really turn into a good guy. which is rare. i gotta watch that this week.

i've been adapting to the limited function in my right hand for the past few months. i am a physically strong person, and physically very capable, so having a handicap, even one so minor, has been a major adjustment. having to ask for help with things, or admit that physically i just cannot manage- i am not good at this, but i am learning to be better.
the unintentional side benefit has been learning that not only am i pretty ambidextrous, i actually draw better left handed than right handed.

working with animals, like lillypea says, is all about adapting to change. every single animal is unique and every single reaction is unique and so it's a constant game of reading signals and responding to them. you cannot go into an interaction with an unfamiliar animal holding any expectations about what may happen. if you try to predict without responding to the situation you will end up getting injured. even when you are responding in exactly the right ways sometimes you can still get injured.