Chixe

I don't think I have changed that much. I'm more confident about certain things and still pretty naive about others. I have a firmer grasp on relationships and what it takes to make them work. I still suck with money. I still have this notion that I can wait till the last minute to get things done. And I'm still the funniest guy in the room.

I've changed quite a bit since high school, and every once in a while run into the same thing: people doing that same stuff they were before.

I've matured drastically in terms of my outlook on life, people I surround myself with, my relationships with people, and my career. It's a great feeling for me because I feel like I've grown so much as a person, but it's also real damn sad to see that some people really never change and have no ambition.

You know, the same thing happened to me. I went to my HS reunion and a bunch of the people I used to spend time with are still the same. Sure, they work in salaried jobs instead of minimum wage, but otherwise they're the same, except for looks. Some looked fairly similar to the way they had before, but most have changed, some for the better (thinner, more muscular), others for the worse (I even saw someone who I could swear had aged 25 years in the past 10).

Ironically, I was told that as a person I'd changed -- a LOT -- since my HS days: much more confident, much more outgoing, much more positive and approachable. (I guess that's why a lot of the people who hadn't changed seemed more... negative(?) than I remembered them being.) Yet the constant comment was that I looked almost identical to what I had then. I guess it helps that it was dark.

In high school we seek validation, from teachers, peers, social groups. Reunions are nothing more than a chance to show that you don't need validation, that you are great, that your life is kick ass. Etc.

It seems rather pointless to me, after all if I really wanted to get in touch, I would, or they would. I find reunions fishy.. /shifty_eyes

lol..

I know exactly what you mean. Me, I changed light years by the end of the first summer after high school. Two months after that, you wouldn't recognize me or my interests or my personality. Seven years later, I pretend I've not changed in ways other than apperance (I had 3ft of colored hair back then) in hopes that I'd be able to reconnect.

People only seem to want to reconnect online because it's the "cool thing". Blech...

Wireless people hate presence.

I never went to any of my reunions, from HS or college. I truthfully figured that if I wanted someone or a relationship from those days in my life all these years, I would have sought it out or maintained the friendship. Have I changed? I have much more self-confidence and strength. I also lost a lot of weight and folks likely wouldn't recognize me.

I haven't gone to a reunion either, my ten year is next month but I don't plan on going for exactly the same reasons stated above. Facebook is kind of providing a virtual reunion in some ways, especially through their newish "people you may know" feature.

I missed my 10-year reunion. I think I've changed so much, that I have somewhat lost sight of what exactly I'm comparing myself to! I've been away from my hometown now for 10 years and sure enough, there's culture shock everytime I go back to visit.

I guess as far as HOW I'm different, I think I'm more confident in that I know myself more and what exactly it is that I like about myself to back that confidence up. I'm more articulate and eloquent, I think. And the increased confidence isn't so much the fake, compensatory kind that covers all the rest up like I had in high school (or many people had in high school). I think I'm more patient and tolerant ... and empathic. I can definitely relate to people better and am a better listener. It's not all me, me, me.

I don't think that getting "stuck in time" is a new phenomenon, and I'm under the impression that it's a matter of maturity and the ability of one to look at himself objectively. What I've found though is that a lot of people just tend to, at a certain age, get stuck at some point in their lives and never grow from there. It's almost as if they think that they've already grown up, they're adults now, so why should they have to work toward something better? They don't have any more "growing up" to do, and that's how they will be for the rest of their lives.

Personally... I've changed a lot. I used to be a lot more arrogant, one of those know-it-all kinds of people that everyone hated. Someone who would conquer the world and take life for all it's worth with little effort. Maybe it was to overcompensate for my lack in social graces, but that mindset stuck with me well into college. Realizing the fallacy of that attitude hit me really hard and I just 180'ed one day and decided not to be that way anymore.

I don't regret that at all, and have been a lot happier ever since.

On a core level of who I am, I don't think I've changed at all, but on the other hand the way I'd do things now differs vastly from how I did it before.

I don't think people change at all over the years. We just adapt to new ways of using the same old traits.

That being said, looking at some of my old high school friends. Some people hardly pick up anything new. It's kinda sad, but I'm kinda glad that I got out of that scene before I became perpetually stuck in time.

I had the same experience when I first began MySpace about three years ago. It was very exciting to see people whom I otherwise wouldn't have gotten back in touch with. I did see a good share of people I knew back in high school who got married, had children and went to college which was nice to know. But there are a good number of people I knew who are seemingly "bubbled" in this era that I left out of eleven years. It's so wicked because they still have the same mentality, use the same verbage, wear the same style clothes and hairstyles from 1997 (when we graduated), and still surround themselves with the same childish drama. It's like they're still in that age of finding themselves in the world, still waiting for that breakthrough into maturity, still awkward and foolish with the relationships around them. And to be completely honest, it makes me feel good about who I am, how far I've come, how much I've changed. Just like you mentioned, I look back at photographs of myself and I know they're ME, and I remember being that girl, but at some point there's a sort of fault line that halves your life off- one day it just splits your childhood from your adulthood, and I definately recognize when that split was made and view my childhood as a PAST. The problem with some of the people we knew back in high school is that what is supposed to be their PAST is still their PRESENT in some strange way. Without even realizing probably, they haven't made that transition we did, that "fault line" doesn't exist for them. I hate to admit it, but I just can't bring myself to stay interested in what they're up to, and often get annoyed with how a few of them carry themselves still that I end up removing them from my friends list without giving it a second thought. lol