12
votes
What has changed as you've gotten older?
Could be something about you, your thoughts, priorities, health, etc.
Could be something about the world, the way things work, etc.
Could be anything really.
What has changed, and how do you feel about it?
I can't believe how much of a dumb ass I used to be at 20. I sometimes wonder, if at 80, I will look back at my 40's and simply shake my head. I hope so. I hope I am always learning, and getting wiser.
Your outlook reminds me of a favorite bit of mine from Red vs. Blue.
They proved it mathematically! Hey. Can't argue with math.
I came here to say this, but also: I drive slow AF now.
Life is too short to get all stressed the fuck out driving fast. It makes your chance of death exponentially higher with each extra MPH.
Chill out, drown the honks in tunes, and live better knowing that you'll almost certainly live longer than that asshole behind you blowing his horn at you because you're doing 60 in a 65. Or 15mph instead of standstill-30mph-standstill. If not for the driving, by avoiding their pending stress-induced brain aneurism.
Remember: Every MPH over 40 or so is also less efficient, and therefore worse for climate change. Fight the power. Drive 60 in a 65 so the people passing you at 65 force everyone to stop driving 85.
At some point I realized that speeding only made a minute or two difference in arrival time, even if you’re driving for an hour. If there are lots of stoplights and they’re timed properly, it makes zero difference.
Serious answer: Everything, really. Change is the one constant we have in our lives, and I don't think there are many things I could point you to and say, "yup, that's unchanged". Every mutable thing about me has changed, everything in my environment has changed, the world I'm in is so different from the one I grew up in...
Joke answer: I've got boobs now, I guess
I always thought it was super weird that theres so many people out there who are more or less the same as they were in high school.
It's super depressing to meet people who never are ashamed of their past selves. Its usually because they refuse to look backwards or inwards.
I know someone like that. For some, I think the resistance to change is a deliberate choice. I used to be friends with this person in high school and they chose to go to a university local to our metro area instead of going elsewhere in state or even out of state/international. The rest of our friend group went to universities elsewhere. When we'd returned just a few years later after graduating college, the rest of us had changed so much, even if our underlying personalities were similar. This one friend was still the same as we knew them in freshman year of highschool. Eventually, we grew apart as our lives got busy and we all had different things going on in our lives. For a while we'd try to check up on each other 2-3 times a year but that's now stopped unfortunately.
I’m better looking.
Me too! But I don’t know how much of it is me actually being more attractive and how much is just me being more confident.
Same thing!
probably both, to be honest. Confidence goes a long way and kind of self-perpetuates.
I recently updated my wardrobe and I'm getting compliments from randos on the street. Its all minor differences like nicer brogues, textured fabrics, etc.. same ol' haircut. Confidence goes a long way.
Heh, it’s funny. I remember as a kid seeing this show about women who get haircuts and basically changing personalities, and thinking that it was crazy. But I started feeling this way after spending a lot of money on a fancy haircut now.
Honestly there’s a lot more reason but most of it is not really appropriate for Tildes. 😅
My life has changed immensely, which is part of how things go.
Looking at myself in my early 30s vs my early 20s vs my early 10s shows huge changes over the years:
I'm a vastly different person compared to who I used to be, and I know that in another 10 years I'll be a different person than who I am now. I think that I've mostly moved in the positive direction, but I have had some negatives that I'm working on addressing.
Relationships have also changed drastically over the years. I have some friends whom I'm still friends with since I was 5 and others whom I thought would be best friends for life drifted apart for one reason or another. Some guys I didn't think I'd get a long with have become friends I check in with regularly, and we make the time to hop on calls even though we live in drastically different timezones.
I do miss some of my old friendships and think about them occasionally. Things change and I try to appreciate the good times and things I've learned from them. For most of them if they reached out to me, I'd be happy to reconnect, and very few have caused me to permanently close the door on a relationship with them. There are billions more people for me to meet and relationships to be had.
I have a lot less patience for people who must see a thing to believe it’s real. I’m unimpressed with fathers who finally believe sexual harassment is a real thing only after watching their daughters cry over it.