One day, a woman woke up, looked in the mirror and found she had three hairs on her head. “I will braid my hair today,” she said, then had a grand day. The next day she woke up and saw she had two hairs on her head. “I will put my hair in pigtails,” she said and had a lovely day. When she got up the following day she noticed there was only one hair on her head. “I will wear a ponytail,” she said and had a wonderful day. The day after that, she woke up and discovered her head was bare. “I don’t have to do my hair today,” she said with a smile and once again had a fine day.

I have to admire the woman. If that happened to me, I would probably be drowning in my own tears or feeling as if my life was over. But this woman didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself.

Some people would say the story’s moral is “It’s all in how you look at things,” and while that certainly is true, I think the story teaches us to accept change, which is often hard to do.

Next year will bring major changes for graduates. In addition to attending new and larger schools with lots of new people, many of us won’t be living at home anymore, and some will even be moving across the country. We’re all pretty excited, but we’re also wistful to leave high school and certainly apprehensive about the future. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a little frightened and have shed a few tears.

But we have to look at the changes in a positive light. Yes, sometimes change isn’t so good, like when you lose all your hair, but if you completely reject change, you miss out on the good it brings. Maybe the woman lost her hair because of chemo therapy, but the chemo cured her cancer.

The bottom line is change is inevitable. Without it, life would be monotonous. High school was wonderful, but we still have the rest of our live ahead of us. So when you wake, look in the mirror, and find you are a college student, have a fine day.