I lay awake all night last night...thinking. I was thinking about how important a person's past is in relation to who they are today. I was thinking about how much weight that past would or would not carry in the present. I was thinking about how important that past might or might not be when juxtaposed next to what they might do next.
And I realised, that every single one of us was young and stupid at some point in our lives; every one of us has some skeleton in the closet that we aren't proud of; every one of us has done something that we wish we could take back. The thing is, you can't take it back; you can't undo what's already been done; you can't wipe the slate clean and pretend it was never written. It doesn't work like that.
The beauty of human nature though, is that it can change. I remember sitting in my Ethics lecture once, and the lecturer posed the question, "Do you think we can evolve from ourselves?" and I raised my hand and replied, "It depends, we can't change what's in our Nature," and then I was hit with an epiphany and continued, "Or...can we?"
In that moment, it hit me, that while our Nature is something that's intrinsic to us, it is not something that's set in stone - it's not as impeachable as our DNA for instance. We can change who we are, we can evolve, even in a personal capacity; we can, because we're human.
And here's the thing - we all have a past, but it doesn't define us. We are the sum of our experiences and therefore, we are the sum of our past...BUT, we are distinguished by our choices and actions in the present.
So never be quick to judge someone on their past self and never be ashamed to admit to being the people we once were, because that's what helped build us into who we are today. What defines us, are the decisions that we make in the here and now - those decisions won't affect our yesterday, but it will shape who we are tomorrow.
So the sum total of my full night lost in deep thought: nobody should be judged by who they once were or what they once did, if the person who they are now is the person you're proud to know, because without their past, they don't exist in the present.
And I realised, that every single one of us was young and stupid at some point in our lives; every one of us has some skeleton in the closet that we aren't proud of; every one of us has done something that we wish we could take back. The thing is, you can't take it back; you can't undo what's already been done; you can't wipe the slate clean and pretend it was never written. It doesn't work like that.
The beauty of human nature though, is that it can change. I remember sitting in my Ethics lecture once, and the lecturer posed the question, "Do you think we can evolve from ourselves?" and I raised my hand and replied, "It depends, we can't change what's in our Nature," and then I was hit with an epiphany and continued, "Or...can we?"
In that moment, it hit me, that while our Nature is something that's intrinsic to us, it is not something that's set in stone - it's not as impeachable as our DNA for instance. We can change who we are, we can evolve, even in a personal capacity; we can, because we're human.
And here's the thing - we all have a past, but it doesn't define us. We are the sum of our experiences and therefore, we are the sum of our past...BUT, we are distinguished by our choices and actions in the present.
So never be quick to judge someone on their past self and never be ashamed to admit to being the people we once were, because that's what helped build us into who we are today. What defines us, are the decisions that we make in the here and now - those decisions won't affect our yesterday, but it will shape who we are tomorrow.
So the sum total of my full night lost in deep thought: nobody should be judged by who they once were or what they once did, if the person who they are now is the person you're proud to know, because without their past, they don't exist in the present.
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