It's now 1990. I'm forty-three years old, which would've seemed impossible to a fourth grader, and yet when I look at photographs of myself as I was in 1956, I realize that in the important ways I haven't changed at all. I was Timmy then; now I'm Tim. But the essence remains the same. I'm not fooled by the baggy pants or the crew cut or the happy smile—I know my own eyes—and there is no doubt that the Timmy smiling at the camera is the Tim I am now. Inside the body, or beyond the body, there is something absolute and unchanging. The human life is all one thing, like a blade tracing loops on ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow. (236)
When I look at my own life, I can see that I have changed. I have gotten taller, louder, smarter, wiser, but when I look deep into my eyes I still that shy little girl who hanged on mommy’s arm; a sweetheart who laughed at silly jokes made by her dad. A person may change, and change is most often needed, but the true essence of self remains through out a lifetime as O’Brien states. I know in my heart that some parts of me will never change. O’Brien says, “Inside the body, or beyond the body, there is something absolute and unchanging”. My morals and values will always be with me, because I believe that they are what shapes a child at a young age. I know I will always keep my faith in God, that I will always try to be that person who helps whenever they can, and I will always put my heart and soul into everything.
Change, I believe is essential for growth of a person. Change helps to determine who you will become. However, it your past that defines who you are and how that change will affect your life. My body, my likes and dislikes, my relationships may all change, but it my past and my memories and lessons learned will always be with. The are my unchangeable aspects of life. I will carry them for the rest of my life and pass them down to generations after mine.
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5 comments:
I agree with what was said in your post very much. I think that a person's childhood sculpts a lot of who they are now or who they are going to become.
Do you feel that even if these aspects are changed that you are still the same person? I do. I think the examples you've mentioned help to clarify your stance; however, they alone do not substantiate it. I think that evidence of these things remaining the same can be used as proof to aid our side of this concept, but I beleive that even if they were not present, that the point is still true. There are many many things that define who and what we are and there are many more that attempt to alter them. But, all in all, we are still the same individual going through these shifts of time.
You write, "My body, my likes and dislikes, my relationships may all change, but it my past and my memories and lessons learned will always be with."
Will always be with what?
You continue, "The are my unchangeable aspects of life. I will carry them for the rest of my life and pass them down to generations after mine."
Do you expect future generations to accept these aspects?
Thanks Juno! Yes I agree with you that we wil always be the same person even if things changed, and there are many aspects that make up who we are.
To theteach:
The memories and lessons learned will always be with me. I believe the foundation set by parents and guardians and those that watch over you at young age follow you for the rest of your life. I know in my personal experience that I have aquired many of the same morals and values that my parents have taught me. I know that their parents, my grandparents, had very similar ones. So while they may slightly change with the times the foundation for these morals and values remain. So to answer your question, Yes, I do hope that generations after me will aquire some of the same beleifs that I have been taught.
You write:"So to answer your question, Yes, I do hope that generations after me will aquire some of the same beleifs that I have been taught."
So do I. :) :)
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