Have you ever bumped into people from past & realized how little/much has changed.

[2jakes]

Have a cousin who was always very arrogant with everyone
when we were young.
Never smiled, very negative about things.
Years later I saw him at a wedding reception.
Completely different personality.
Smiling and very friendly.
This made me wonder.

Asked his brother about him.
His brother replied....
“grandchildren!”.

 

[2jakes]

One of my buddies replied when I asked him this question.
He said...“Most are all dead!.

 

[31 Model A]

Some HS gals who wouldn't give me the time of day, let alone a date. Now that I've returned after 50 years, some are asking me for the time. I just say, I'm retired now and I don't own a watch.

 

[EngProf]

Some HS gals who wouldn't give me the time of day, let alone a date. Now that I've returned after 50 years, some are asking me for the time. I just say, I'm retired now and I don't own a watch.

Along that same line, I saw our High School's Head Majorette at our 35th HS reunion and amazingly we got along VERY well.
We were in totally different worlds in HS, and everyone thought it was funny that the Head Majorette and the President of the Science Club got together after all those years. (We dated for several years until she moved away to be closer to her children and grandchildren.)

 

[2jakes]

Because of facebook, I was able to reunite with one
of my classmates from elementary when I was ten.
We chatted about friends and teachers from elementary
to high school years and although we never did hang out
together, we did see each other during the day at school.
She was beautiful and I was very shy.

In one of our chats on FB, we spoke of high school
& yearbooks. She mentioned that she had the senior
yearbook.
I didn't and was curious to see it.
We got together for lunch.
It was very pleasant and was very flattered when
she gave me her senior yearbook to keep.
Later as a token of thanks, I offered to do an oil painting
and asked her if she had a favorite subject.
She thinks I am very talented and said that meeting me
and becoming friends was rewarding enough.
I thought that was a really nice gesture giving me her
yearbook.
I don't go to facebook very much but it was good that
I did because I finally got to talk to someone with whom
I had a crush when I was a kid. She is still very beautiful
but also very married.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My observation for many years now has been that, despite our culture's insistent mantra of CHANGE - YOU MUST GROW AND CHANGE AND BE THE BEST PERSON YOU CAN BE!... most people don't really change. Their circumstances change - married/divorced, wealthy/broke, healthy/infirm, employed/retired, etc. - but their essential personalities mostly don't.

All the people I've known since the sixties and seventies are mostly the same: The arrested cases are still living in their parents' houses, and the ones who never ventured into romance are still alone. The ones who were fixated on money, or power, or sex... very much still are. The workaholics are still driven, the slackers are still lazy. The ones who were kind and responsible still are, whereas the ones who were nasty and selfish still are. The ones who were eccentric, if not outright crazy, still are. The ones who were religious mostly still are...

I believe our personalities become more refined and rigid as we age. That our essential selves harden, rather than develop in different directions. And that inner child, inner teen, inner young adult, is still in there as the essential personality.

This is just my personal observation, I don't claim that this is a world law that's true for everyone. Certainly, real change and development is possible for some people. But as I look around at the people still in my orbit now that I'm in my sixties, the majority of them are pretty much essentially the same as 30, 40, 50 years ago.

 

[2jakes]

Of the ones that I know that have changed from a negative towards a more positive attitude towards others has been mostly because of someone who entered their lives and made it possible.
Of the ones that I know that are single or living alone, have become very set in their ways, more so as they get older and will not tolerate or give-and-take with others.
They are happy in their own way.