When you think of yourself 10 years ago, do you feel like you have

[valis]

changed? Not physically... Emotionally, the way you think, the way you react to the world... Of course, people learn, but I'm talking about something more fundamental...

[cestpaspossible]

1. Maybe you should be more specific about

what you mean by something more fundamental than learning... feeling like a wholly new person?

[valis]

4. I meant, when you think back and you realize that the way you used

to react to things was different. For instance, that certain situations used to give you pleasure of anxiety, and that at the time you took those reactions as defining attributes of who you were. And now they don't so anything.

[cestpaspossible]

6. I guess I never thought of that kind of thing

as a defining attribute of who I am. I don't see how that's different from learning to react to something in a new way. I'm not sure what a defining attribute of who I am would be, though.

But yeah, emotionally, the way I react, is different from 10 years ago. Again, not sure how you'd quantify it.

[valis]

13. For instance, I used to cry a lot at movies...

I thought that would never change, that I'd always be that way, get really touched by many situations... To me, that was a defining attribute of myself.... It has changed... Probably my brain is different, in part as a result of being older, and that's all...

[Floogeldy]

15. How old are you?

Thanks.

[valis]

16. I'm 39 years old.

[valis]

17. I feel like I've changed the most in the last 5 years.

[sundog]

2. absolutely

:)

[tridim]

3. That's an understatement..

America was a vastly different place then. Everybody was happy and all was well with the world (for the most part). I was making 3 times what I make now doing the exact same work.

Now I can't even trust my Republican neighbors. That's really sad.

My kingdom for a time machine.

[Patchuli]

5. Absolutely!

I notice small changes physically but big changes emotionally. I'm 'quieter' inside, more relaxed and more patient. In most things....heheee

[progmom]

7. yep

having a kid has made me a lot more easygoing.

[valis]

12. That's what I heard... I suppose you have to become that way.

More patient, etc... You sound like a great parent!

[progmom]

14. you can't really justify being self-centered anymore

and if you're lucky, you're so much in love with this child that you don't even miss being self centered.

[valis]

8. I used to be more compassionate...

Now, I'm bothered only intellectually about bad situations... I give a few bucks to homeless people I encounter. But I don't feel much... Basically the realization that life can be unfair has somehow drained my emotions in this respect...

[MrSlayer]

9. Yes, I had a second child.

I had to stop my super extreme lifestyle and start showing up for work. Even after my first child the true weight of the responsibility hadn't set in. This is also when I began turning away from the dark side of political belief that I was brought up on and started to embrace the liberal/progressive way of thinking.

[valis]

10. Glad you turned around!

:D

[RandomKoolzip]

11. Yeah. I changed a lot.

I'm not as suceptable to blaming my faults on others anymore, and I'm more willing to take responibility for myself and my loved ones.

And I clean up after myself a lot more than I used to.

[TheProphetess]

18. I was more naive than I am now

Ask me again in 10 years and I'll probably say the exact same thing about the way I am right now, so I guess it's all relative. :)

[AntiCoup2K4]

19. I would have to answer yes, but....

..in all honesty I could only blame about 20% of that on the Bush Criminal Empire. I never trusted those fuckers anyway, so I didn't expect much of them. Unfortunately that wasn't the case with some other people who mattered in the real world.

[valis]

20. Good point about the Chimpy admin...

It is possible that I had to tune out emotions or be overwhelmed by the continuous stream of bad stuff coming at us since 2000...

[Extend a Hand]

21. ok, I still have an hour and a half left to work

so you get the long answer.

I'm 43 now.
30 years ago I was a thirteen year old run-away hitch-hiking up the east coast trying to figure out who I was and why I didn't fit in a fundamentalist religion.

20 years ago I was a college student married to a methadone addict and selling marijuana and cocktail waitressing for a living. I chose to major in computer science because I didn't want to have to depend on a man to support me and I figured that since I had a big-mouth I'd better pick a career where I could change jobs and not be trapped.

10 years ago I was re-married and the mom of a toddler. I was looking for a way to work less hours and spend more time with my son and to obtain enough economic security to not have to work for somebody else. I wanted the 'American dream' of a comfortable lifestyle and economic security.

today, I am the mother a teenager, trying to prepare for peak-oil, hoping to adopt a more earth-friendly life-style.
I want my son to find happiness in life. I want him to
understand that materialism is NOT the path to happiness
to be an empathetic person
to find spiritual contentment
to work for himself at something he enjoys

For the first time in my life, really worried about the future of our country-- but when I look back our history I still have hope. Things have been bad before in our fairly recent history..

the 1933 business coup http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1820194
WWII intermint camps
McCarthy hearings
Watergate
Vietnam

I remember coming home from school and seeing the body-bags come off the planes at the end of Vietnam-- and I worry about my son and step-son being drafted.

I love my husband and my smart and empathetic son ;) . I am looking forward to 'retiring' next year. We are planning to sell our house, buy an RV and spend a year seeing the country and finding the perfect place to build or convert a house to solar energy.

How have you changed?

wa-hoo (only 30 more minutes to go)

[amazona]

22. No

The difference between the late 30s and the late 40s is inconsequential actually. I feel I have deepened but not changed as it were.

On edit- fascinating to read these responses. It is true -- we're all different on the inside. I'm only a bit older than the person who did the decade by decade breakdown and is only now worrying about peak oil -- to me, a 70s hysteria fad. I remember things just the opposite. Growing up in the sixties, coming of age in the 70s, you never knew at any 15 minute interval if you were going to be alive in the next 15 minute interval. (Don't laugh! You young people today have the advantage of KNOWING the Soviets didn't have a delivery system. We were told something different. In many areas of the U.S. "duck and cover" was actually practiced in, imagine this, the 1950s! And by the 1960s and 70s it was a matter of faith that at any given moment you could be wiped out by the Big One.) For my entire life, the end of the world has always been just around the corner. If I've changed, I've changed in that I refuse to keep worrying about it because there is nothing I can do about it anyway.

[valis]

23. It's funny, well, perhaps not funny... What made me think about this

for the first time was an old friend of mine who visited me a couple of years ago. And said to me that I've changed. We had not seen each other for 6 years. At the time I was insulted. Partly I was afraid that our friendship would end, which kind of did... But, I was resisting admitting the obvious... I've always been hypersensitive, so at some level I HAD to change to be able to deal with the world in a stable way...
One thing that is changed is that I don't have many dreams at night anymore. That is the typical pattern as people age... But, I like having vivid dreams... I used to...

[SarahB]

24. I'm about a million times stronger emotionally.

Good thing too because I have to be. Much less concerned with what everyone thinks of me and more concerned with doing what is really right.

(Physically, I'm healthier now as well.) :)

[RevCheesehead]

25. Oh, very much so.

I'm far more relaxed and patient. Experience may count for something, but I'm also thinking the Zoloft has done wonders for me.