Change

Without a doubt, one of the hardest things in life to deal with is change.
As an aspiring historian, I see it all the time, in resistance to social, political, or ideological movements. But it's also a really hard things to deal with when it comes to relationships between loved ones. Some of the best friends I've had I've lost due to relationships. Whether it was my own, or whether it was theirs. Because whenever two people fall in love, something changes.
Say your best friend falls in love. He's always told you his secrets, called you for advice, and left his phone on for your 2 AM drunken calls when all you needed to hear was his voice. Then he falls in love. And it's like a techtonic shift which causes a rift valley. Slowly, and with time, the rift grows larger. He tells his secrets to her instead of you, calls her for advice instead of you, and switches the phone off because well... c'mon now, we all know why.
And when you fall in love, well, that changes everything. It's been so many years since I've been in love now that it's almost hard to recall what love was, let alone when it died, and yet somehow I'll try.
When you fall in love, all else loses meaning. Everything is less important than it was, and nothing is as important as the two of you. The world could stop, the stars could fall, and all it would seem to you is a spectacle that honors your emotions. And then, it dies.
When love dies, it's always a slow death. And when it's finally over, and you've endured the agony of sleepless nights and dreary days, you wake up to find that nothing is how it was. And that is almost harder to bear than the death of love itself. Because it eats at you, every day. The questions: why did love end? when will it come back? will it ever come back? are like a shadow that follows you around, sometimes invisible because the sun is right above your head, but always there nonetheless.
And what is it that made life hard to deal with? It was the fact that change had taken place. And of course, then there is the obvious irony. Namely, that change is always taking place.