Change: A Constant Companion on Life's Journey
When it comes to trying new things or embracing new ideas, historically, I have been “last to the party.”
We were on a family road trip when my dad pulled into Wendy’s for the first time; I was not eating square hamburgers.
When the self-adhesive stamp was introduced in 1989, I was aghast. I thought it was just wasteful; the backing was going in the trash, and the change was being made just to make things easier for people. Little did I know the change was made to reduce the fraudulent removal and reuse of paper stamps. In 2002, all stamps went to self-adhesive, and I had no choice but to comply.
I was not so sure about microwaves when they came out, yet now, I have one in my kitchen and use it several times a day. When a new paint color becomes popular, I tend to wait and see how I feel about it for a few months. For example, painting whole rooms black came into style a little while back; I am just starting to warm up to the possibility. When Ford changed the body style of the Mustang in 2005, I could not even stand to look at them. Porsche came out with the Cayenne in 2002; well, that was just wrong. Porsche makes sports cars, not SUVs.
This past weekend, my husband and I were traveling from Ohio to Tennessee, and we stopped at McDonald's for coffee and to use the restroom. What in the world is going on there? There are 3 or 5 human-sized touch screens where you order, and there is no one at the register. Don’t wait for them to come to the counter; they are safe behind tile walls and are not coming to help you. There are cages and metal shelves where you can pick up your online order. I understand that change is needed to adapt to the times. But when it comes to McDonald's, my statement to friends and family this weekend was that “I want to go back to the world I grew up in.”
Another new thing is A1 being easily available to everyone, more specifically, ChatGPT. The thing that is going to take all our jobs, write all our articles, and our country songs. (hint of sarcasm there but….)
People around me were talking about using it, how interesting and helpful it was. Still, I held out, honestly scared of what this means for humanity given all the movies there have been about it. But in the last few weeks, I have used it to craft the verbiage for my website. As a human, I can second-guess myself too much, and it halts my creativity. Well, A1 has no such issues and just spits out the words. What it came up with was amazing; it was still me telling it what I wanted and the tone, some of the key words, but ChatGPT just wrote it.
It feels like cheating and being unoriginal. The thing is if I had total belief in myself, these are the words I would have used. Taking the human out of the equation is not always a bad idea.
Ok, back to me and change. Change is inevitable, as they say.
My life is a journey of continued improvement. Accepting change has been part of this journey; when I was younger, I was mad when plans changed or my husband and his kids were out late on the ski slopes, and dinner was cold when they got home. Now it may have taken me a few moments of just being still to adjust to a sudden change in plans. Or just a few weeks to try out the newest toy (ChatGPT) and actually see how it can be useful in my life.
Growth, I love it.