Are you the same person that started reading this?
Everything changes. That’s a fact, but how long do we stay the same? How do we measure when a change starts happening and ends? When is now? Who am I? Who is this dead person laying on the floor? Aaaaaaaa!!!!!
These questions bring us to the very beginning of time. To what is the limit for smallest and biggest? The hardest thing in answering these questions is that we are the tool that measures time, not clocks and calendars. Each of us live in a different time set. Sometimes for us time passes quick while for other passes slow, but the time is all the same. It is the effect of time that makes that illusion. So let’s say that a time itself is a change, that means that we perceive change differently therefore it is the effect of change that tells us how much we are changed. That means that we change only when we realize that we change and if we never realize that we change that means that we will never change. Whoa that’s some quantum physics right there!
It’s not quite like that. There is another variable that complicates this process. Other people. They can tell that you are changed even if you don’t realize that at all. Why this happens? It is because other people have a certain image about us in their heads. That image is the way you presented yourself to them in a certain moment or a collection of moments. They build that image by them. When you don’t see each other for a long time they have a gap from their image to the person you are now. They unknowingly realize that gap and compare the changes from their image to you. That is why you are different for them. Changed. What they don’t know is what you have been through that period of time. Maybe you have started a new hobby, maybe something bad or good happened to you that resulted to a chain of events that changed you step by step. You don’t even have to realize that you are changed for someone else to notice. So this means that we change even when we didn’t realize.
What matters is how we see ourselves. Are we changed or not? Do we want to be like we are now or we like to change? Can we actually stay the same for a while? I guess that we are never the same. Our hair grows, our fingernails, our arms, legs, our cells are replaced with new ones, we learn new things, forget old ones… We always change, but it’s the change that we give meaning to that matters. The change that we want to happen, don’t, or that already happened. The image that we have for ourselves is the measurement for the change. We can have an image of what we want to be, of what we are now, of what we don’t want to be. The difference from that image and us is how much we have changed.
So let’s get back to the question “ are we still the same person that started reading this? ”. No. You are not. You now more now. Your hair is a little longer, your nails, some of your cells died, some new ones were born. This is if we see from logical perspective, but if we want an answer that is less logical and more psychological than only by asking ourselves this question we can get the right answer. Only you can answer if you are changed or not. Only you can measure that. I am African now. Fo real man!
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