Some people seem to stay the same as time goes by. But people can change.

When they do, it can take time for us to understand or accept the change (not that it’s even ours to understand or accept).

If we’ve already made up our mind about a person, it’s a lot easier to stick to the story we know.

It takes emotional labor to navigate a change in someone else. It takes curiosity, empathy, and open-mindedness to learn about a person’s new interests, new values, new habits, or new identity.

But that’s our challenge. To loosen our grip on “I know all about you” and to embrace the idea of “I’m curious about you, and I want to know more” ... even for people whose story we think we already know.