Monday, May 24, 2010

Are we borne towards predetermined fates?

I wonder, when we're born, are we not also born with a personality from the start, or do we all begin with a clean slate, shaped by our environment, where the only hereditary traits are those physical, which control how we define ourselves via social interaction?

As I look back into time, I am self-aware that I am in fact, that same person I was 30 years ago.  I am the curmudgeon of authority, I am the doubter, I am the visually and tactile-stimulated person that I was when I was just a child.  I am the same person 30 years ago who, like a pendulum, swung from extreme confidence to sudden lack of self-confidence.  The same person who three decades ago could walk alone in the dark and not be scared, harbored no fear, and used intuition as my guide.  I am that same kid that could write eloquent prose, or disjointed sentences.  I am the same person who 30 years ago, could solve a physical three-dimensional puzzle in relatively short time, and had no trouble with tangrams.  Still the same whimsical person I was 30 years ago, too.

Or am I just different from everyone else, in that I am self-aware and, for the fact that I am self-aware, have allowed myself to simply be who I've always been, rather than fight who I am or let environments change who I am?

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