Anderung - Change, Alteration

We all change all the time, whether we know it or not. It’s just when we’re around the people we live and work with over the years, nobody seems to notice. Unless it’s a big change, like you lose an arm, or acquire third-degree burns to the face. But to people who haven’t seen you for a long time, the slightest shift in weight, skin tone, hair length or any other superficial bodily characteristic will be the first thing they mention when you see each other again. “Ooooh, you’ve lost weight!”, “Ooooh, you look tanned!” , “You’re hair is so much shorter!”, “Jesus! The bulge in pants has grown!”. Well, maybe not the last one, unless it’s family reunion in Norfolk. Of course you haven’t changed, as much as they’re certain they haven’t either - beyond the external features. This was most evident for me when I visited home for the first time in almost a year and saw my friends. Sat in the pub my closest friend from school had had become a Jehovah’s Witness, which considering he used to draw massive cocks in my book in science class, as well as burning pencil cases on Bunsen burners, took my by surprise. He thought it was perfectly normal though, despite it being a substantial change in his life. But then he also informed me that he heard the voice of Jehovah in his head, and was instructed to do all sorts of bizarre-o stuff for him. And that he’d been sectioned under the Mental Health Act on several occasions. This seemed to convince me further that I hadn’t changed a single bit. But then a good while later I thought about it, and I’d clearly not had a psychotic breakdown, but I was in a long term relationship, I’d lost my northern accent and was planning a trip I’d have never ever considered a few years before. I truly couldn’t have predicted that almost - but not quite - as much as my friend going mental.