It occurs to me that for the past year or so, my life has been very stable. I have had the same job since about a year ago, and I have worked at the same place since December 2009. I have been dating the same girl for almost a year. For more than a year, I have gone to the same place every Monday night and seen more or less the same people. My good friends are still my good friends. Since the end of last year, I have been debt-free and I have enough of an emergency fund to last me through the end of my lease.

All of this has been a blessing. I’ve been really happy and lucky. Granted, at the time all this was happening, it didn’t feel so smooth. (For example, I was super stressed out when I was working two jobs.) Zooming out, though, it does appear to be a rather stable period of my life.

Now, if this were a movie trailer, this would be where the narrator says, “But all of that is about to change…” It needn’t be as ominous as you’re probably imagining, though. It’s just that a lot will change and it will happen relatively rapidly.

The aforementioned Monday meeting will soon be changing location. My friends’ lease is up and they’re moving out. I will then be hosting Monday nights, which is a pretty big change. Since I’m going on vacation before the changeover, it will seem all the more disorienting to come back and have my routine become drastically different.

The reason my friends aren’t renewing their lease is because one of them is joining the Peace Corp and will be leaving for Africa. So, that’s another big change. One of my good friends will be gone for two years.

After that, grad schools will start up. Although I don’t know where anyone is going, it is likely that two of my friends will be moving from the Bay Area. A third could possibly move, and I’m interested to see how that will turn out.

Two more friends are currently living with their parents, and I suspect they will probably move before the end of the year. I don’t know where they’ll end up, so this may also change where we all gather. What they decide will probably affect where I live after my lease is up. I’ve decided that I’m paying too much, so I should go somewhere else when my lease is up in October.

Change in routine. Change in people. Change in place. This is all very disruptive. Especially since I’ve felt so rooted ever since I moved back here after college.

Then, there’s the not very robust commute situation. I currently carpool with my dad to work, and I don’t own a car. If he were to get a new job, I wouldn’t have an easy way to get to work.

I’ve definitely been apprehensive of the upcoming changes. I enjoy the situation now, and it’s hard to see it change. Lately, though, I’ve been warming to these changes. I’m excited to take on the challenge of being a good host every week. I’m not sure what prompted the change in emotions. Maybe I realized it’s silly to cling to the past when change is inevitable. Maybe I realized that there are opportunities out there for me if I change too. Maybe I’m also getting slightly tired of my routine.

I’ve slated a redesign for my comic to be released on April 11. I’m excited to be playing with code again. I’m ready for a new look, and I’m ready to give it renewed focus. After that, I’ll try to see if I can sell some t-shirts. And after that, I got more programming projects to do. It sounds like a lot of fun, so maybe that’s why I’m less apprehensive.

“Boy howdy, times they are a-changin’.” — Curly, in Larry Whitman: Data Entry Maverick