New Cheese Always Comes
On Fear, Change, and Becoming Stronger
I’ve always turned to Who Moved My Cheese? during times of change. Each time, it reminds me: fear is real, but so is courage.
Fear is a constant companion. It shakes our hands, steals our sleep, and convinces us that something bad must be waiting. I’ve felt it in my body—in the trembling, in the sleepless nights, in the way my appetite disappears. Fear whispers, stay where you are, don’t move.
But I’ve also learned this: every time I’ve walked through uncertainty, I’ve come out stronger.
That’s why I’ve returned to Who Moved My Cheese? again and again. Its story is simple, yet sharp enough to pierce through my hesitation:
Cheese is everything we desire—love, peace, health, success, security.
Sniff notices change early. Scurry takes quick action, without overthinking. Hem clings to the past, insisting “things shouldn’t be this way.” Haw resists, but eventually laughs at his fear and moves forward.
I’ve been Haw, afraid but willing to grow. I’ve been Hem, stuck in the belief that life should have turned out differently. And slowly, I’ve learned to live more like Sniff and Scurry—trusting instinct, moving with change, refusing to drown in analysis paralysis.
Spencer Johnson wrote, “The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.” Those words stay with me. Because the longer I cling to my stories of injustice, unfairness, or loss, the more I delay what waits ahead.
When I moved to a new city, fear followed me here. It told me I might not belong, that I might fail. But alongside the fear came empowerment: the reminder that every invisible scar proves I’ve survived more pain than I thought possible. If the cheese has moved, then I can move too.
And every time, I discover this truth: new cheese always comes.
Haw left a message on the maze wall: “When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.” I hold onto that line. Because freedom doesn’t come when fear disappears—it comes when we decide to move with it, shoes laced, ready to run.
This is Sainya to me: graceful, unapologetic boldness in the midst of uncertainty. Choosing to leap even when the circumstances are not ideal. Acting not because the path is smooth, but because I have decided I am ready.
The cheese always moves. And when it does, so must we.
Because new cheese always comes.
“Sainya is the leap—the courage to move even when the maze feels dark.”
—Vanessa Liu