On Reaching A Point Of Change

There are sadly, times when your world changes. While changes are fresh and often refreshing, the are also all about things being different and even the most positive of changes still carries with it a high level of stress. Take for instance some of the most stressful events available to humanity: slipping into your first pod; getting married; plugging in +5 implants; flying your first interceptor; having children; upgrading your medical clone. These are all positive events with great rewards attached to them. We learn, grow and become more than we were through them. And still they give us stress and often force us to re-evaluate our position.

This eustress as it were is a cumulative process in the body and pod pilots are not immune. It is a function of our terrestrial origins and comes ‘part and parcel’ with the biological  fleshy sack of bones that we stuff into our pods. This is for the most part a good thing. However – like all stress it needs an outlet. Some people find their relief in mining, other from running missions for various corporations and still others from trying to stop other pilots from completing the first two.

[caption id="attachment_966" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="What We Saw From Outside"][/caption]

So to has been the move to a new home in a higher class wormhole. We came into the new home with isk in our eyes and the sun aft. There was great excitement, motivation, participation and preparation. The transition from a class 3 to a class 4 wormhole carried with it an added set of challenges that required adaptation, innovation and adjustments in how we perceived and pursued the profits around us. So too does the shift from a class 4 to a class 5. Here also is the need for adaptation, innovation and adjustment. The rewards are potentially much greater, but also the dangers. There is the ever-looming threat of better pilots with bigger toys coming to visit. The concentrations of enemies and the requirements to face them are both higher. If there is one other thing that remains constant in moving from class to class, it is the progression of difficulty.

[caption id="attachment_967" align="alignright" width="150" caption="What We See From Inside"][/caption]

As we have set up our operations and began to prepare for the future, several things have become apparent.

• Change generates a lot of excitement and activity that is not necessarily reflective of ongoing reality.
• Perceptions are based in reality but do not always reflect the whole picture.
• The progression of difficulty is not linear and iterations on a theme are less likely to be as effective.
• While loss can be a motivator and tool for education, it can also and often is disheartening.
• Losses are always painful. Even the small ones.
• Sometimes you can simply be unlucky. Other times it is sheer luck that makes things go great.

So in the end we are having to wrestle with our own perceptions and expectations of what we want out of the whole experience. We are each coming to terms with how we will cope and for some it means more changes. Some have decided that the best way to deal with it is to move on to something else. It is not unlike the earliest of starts when we learned how to die very well and what to watch out for. While we are no longer the idiots in the neighbourhood, we still have a lot of learning to do.