Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka (Volume 2) is one of my favourite trilogies of all time because of how much I resonated with the main character, Saeki Sayaka. The following are two quotes that I briefly remembered today:
“It happens all the time, I think. The other person will change, and you’ll change, too. That’s all there is to it, and maybe that isn’t so bad.” I’d once parted ways with someone when those changes weren’t in sync with each other, and the same could easily happen again someday. But I couldn’t just stop changing either, so I kept a close eye on everything, including myself. And while I was staring so fixedly, things began to move around me.
The realisation that finally dawned on me was so simple, but I might have been a bit too late in coming to it. I had rejected change, choosing to remain by her as she stood in one place. But while I stayed in place, she started to walk, following a girl who was passing by.
I love these quotes because it makes me reflect on change and stagnation, permanency, and immortality.
Sayaka chooses to maintain the status quo with her friend, Touko, desperately hoping that by keeping everything the same, they would continue walking side by side forever. But, while she was fixated on Touko, Touko in turn became enamoured with another girl and left Sayaka behind.
This makes me think about how even if we choose not to change because we are happy with what’s around us, the world continues to change. One example in real life I can think of is our workplace. Even if we’re happy with our team or our company at the moment, people will join and leave the team and the company will grow or diminish. When I worked at SEEK, it was much less “corporate” and had less bureaucracy but in the name of “scaling up the business”, the company adopted new service management systems and mired previously simple things with layers of red tape. So, eventually I left the company because it no longer aligned with what I wanted.
This makes me thing about another related idea which is that it’s all about timing. I don’t think there’s a perfect company for me out there. But, I think that for a definite period of time, there could be a specific team or company out there that would be the best fit for me.
In terms of friendship, I think that over time, people will change in different ways. Sometimes our values shift and we may no longer align with our friends. So, we need to find our own answer to how we deal with this. Sometimes, the differences could become irreconcilable. But, sometimes the changes are probably minor enough that we can absorb them into our friendships.