Disclaimer: I do not own The Simpsons
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The Process of Change
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Life's all one big change. As human beings, we don't respond to it well. When the abolitionist movement grew in the 1840s and 1850s, people didn't accept it. When the French monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution, the other European countries sent armies to restore it. When America experienced the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, resistance was amazing. And now, as I hear that we're about to sell our house and move to Capital City, I'm afraid of what the future will bring.
It's human nature to glorify the past, gripe about the present, and fear the future. The sad truth is usually that the 'good old days' weren't so good when we lived them and the present isn't as bad as we think it to be. Now, in 2008, when we've lived eight years of a George Bush Presidency, we think back to the 'good old days' of the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was President. What we usually overlook is the scandal and the recession of the early part of the decade. We overlook the fact that a lot of the decisions that led to the problems of today were created in that period, and even before that. And when we leave this present, into the future, we'll look back on now as 'the good old days', even if they're not that great. We do it when we watch television. We complain when the writers change the format when the show goes on for a while by adding new characters or simply changing around some situations in the character's lives. But the truth is, if they didn't, we'd call the show 'boring' or 'tired'.
Maybe I'm being too philosophical.
Maybe I'm being too pessimistic. After all, mom, dad, Maggie, and Bart are taking it fine. They've all changed, and I have too. I've grown my hair out and changed my clothes. I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm sixteen years old. Bart's eighteen and has done a complete 360 in regards to studies and his behavior. So he's still a bit sassy. But he's grown up a lot. He's got himself a girlfriend, a car, and plans to become a police officer. Imagine, Bart Simpson, a protecter of law and order. It's a far cry from the anarchistic Bart of the old days. And my dad, Homer, who's got a new job after the death of his old boss, Montgomery Burns, another change. My mom, who plans to run a small bakery in Capital City. And Maggie, nine years old, who can't wait to attend her new elementary school.
We may not respond to it well, but human beings need change. It's what keeps us going. We always need something to do, something to look forward to, and something to complain about and fear. It's just how we are. I may not like it that we're moving to a new city. I may not like it that Bart will be leaving us soon and off to begin his life. I may not like it that I'll soon join him in that venture. I may simply sit and reminisce about the past, when Bart was ten, I was eight, Maggie was one, and my dad worked at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, but truth be told, I would have been bored with it were time simply to freeze at that moment in our lives. I, like everyone else, need change.
Springfield's quite a different place now. It's become bigger, more of a city than the small town we used to live in. There are more corporate buildings and hotels. Mr. Burns' mansion and plant are gone and newer houses are being built on the estate. The old stores I grew up with, Moe's Tavern, the Kwik-E-Mart, the Comic store, and even the First Church of Springfield are all gone and with them, many of the colorful and eccentric residents that we used to know. Ned Flanders' Leftatorium went out of business and he moved away, with his sons, Rod and Todd. Grandpa Simpson died of a stroke. Moe left once he sold his bar. Barney went with him. Lenny and Carl too. Springfield Elementary was closed down. Principal Skinner married Edna Krabappel following the death of his mother. The Lovejoys are gone too. Even the Mafia, with Fat Tony arrested for life, his henchmen gone, and Michael having started up a new operation elsewhere, is a simple relic of my past. Chief Wiggum no longer runs to police force. He and his wife and son are gone too. Sideshow Bob commited suicide in madness. Mayor Quimby was voted out of power.
Hell, the world we used to live in is gone. America is no longer the world's remaining superpower. We share that role with China now. We have a black man as president. Global Warming has become regarded as scientific fact. Gay marriage has been accepted and legalized nationwide… well, ALMOST nationwide. Texas and other southern states still ban it. But you get my point right?
I suppose the newer, changed Springfield no longer has room for any of the inhabitants that used to live there. Not for the Flanders family, the Lovejoys, the police, the Mafia, not even the Simpsons. And so, like everyone else, we must leave. The world we grew up in is gone…
… And it's never coming back…
Life is the process of change. Time stops for no man. Fitzgerald's Gatsby learned that the hard way. I can either resist change or I can accept the inevitable and realize that I, too, must change.
And, with my earlier moodiness gone, I feel ready to take on the world of the future.
My life's barely begun. I will see many more changes than the loss of childhood. I won't stay in Capital City forever. I plan on going everywhere in the world. If Bart and the others can change, so can I.
Because, in the end, change is life. We can do nothing to stop it.
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Author's Notes
This is just something I drew up in my spare time. I was thinking, 2008 is ending and the new year demands changes to get out of the mess the world is in right now. So I figured, why not make a fanfiction?
Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, the speaker is Lisa.