In our world and in the Star Wars universe, one thing can be certain ... that change is a constant. Change comes in many forms: a new job, a new car, a new person you meet, a wedding, a new birth, a new youngling discovered with Force sensitivity, a new Chancellor turned Emperor, meeting a crazy old wizard in the desert, and leaving ... among a myriad of other forces of change.

And as I think about change and SW and events in my own life, I start to think that the act of simply leaving something, be it a place, a city, friends and family, or everything you have ever known creates a whole new world ... for better or worse.

Is leaving something an easy decision? Not in all cases. But sometimes it is. In my experience, I left my hometown ten years ago to start a new job in a new city with exciting new prospects and adventure. It was something I was ready for and embraced it. Sure, I missed seeing my family and close friends on a regular basis, even to this day. But in the wonderful age of technology, we talk often and visit when we can and I think many of our bonds have grown stronger, despite the distance. But for me personally, it was a decision to leave and start anew that fostered my growth into the person who I am today.

Like Luke. He left Tatooine, maybe not quite how he expected to, but he made the decision to leave with Obi-Wan to start a new life, a life he thought full of adventure and all that he wanted. His leaving opened up a whole new world and made a huge impact on his life ... he learned to become the last surviving Jedi (EU excluded for a moment!). I find it rather poignant the scene in which he's looking at the twin suns on the eve of his leaving that he's looking to the horizon and wondering where life will take him. While right around the corner waited that new life, and a chance that he took to create it.

And of course Anakin left Tatooine under almost similar conditions ... to become a Jedi. Though his circumstance was different in that he didn't seem to have a choice, but his choice was made for him. It's almost like he was intended to be found and brought to the Jedi Order. But then again, wasn't Luke? In the end, it was the simple act of leaving the planet that changed Anakin's life and set him in a new world.

And both Luke and Anakin had other acts of leaving that changed their lives. Luke made the decision to simply leave Dagobah and his training to save his friends. And that decision turned out to be the worst one he could have made ... he changed his world by losing his hand, losing his battle with Vader and finding out the truth of his lineage. He may have found that out down the line through other means, but it was that decision to leave Dagobah that brought him to a new place too soon.
And of course Anakin decided to leave the Jedi Order and join the Sith. Like leaving Tatooine, that decision was practically made for him, but it still changed his world nonetheless, and changed the world for many other beings in the galaxy. That simple act of saying yes to Palpatine left behind the boy who dreamt of being a Jedi and a hero. The twin suns were extinguished that day.

And of course, in this life and in SW, we long for the people we leave behind when we do leave to make a change. That's natural and a human emotion. Despite how excited we might be for our new life, our new world, it is still hard as we leave others behind.

And as many of you might know, I'm a big fan of Pink Floyd and I find the song "Wish You Were Here" rather appropriate. In Roger Waters' thinking, he was lamenting the "demise" of his friend and bandmate Syd Barrett who left the band due to drug and psychological problems. Syd left, and Roger was left behind with what was the old band. But it still sums up for me, in these lyrics, how I feel about leaving, and the people left behind:

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Despite the leaving and the opening up of new worlds, our old selves are still there, and those selves are still with the people whom we've left. Anakin still held the same old fears he had as himself as he became Darth Vader, and Luke still held the same innocence and spirit of adventure he had as he gazed at the twin suns on the horizon. Those things never left for those two men.

So leaving is a simple act, at least physically speaking. We leave rooms, we leave our computers, we leave our cars ... but it's where we're going that opens up whole new worlds. And the people we leave behind are for individual reasons, sometimes good reasons and sometimes just because we need something new for ourselves. But where we've left will always be a part of us, somehow.