It’s amazing the potential humans can grow into when they’re not confined by the walls of school, by expectations and assumptions and a desire to be “cool.” It’s funny to look at people you used to spend near every day with and realise you are completely different people now – you have grown into separate beings, and that’s okay.
A dear friend and I have only grown closer since we met in school ten years ago. I believe we’ve learnt to grow together, to guide each other, and have only realised over time that our values are near identical and we complement each other as humans. We talked about how much has changed since school, who we were friends with and who never really cross our minds anymore; not in a bad way, just in a way that we have all taken separate paths in life. The only thing that’s really stringing us all together still is, of course, social media.
The people who find themselves in religion when they were far from it in school, the people who preach veganism when you watched them devour more than one hamburger from Maccas, the people who have become the epitome of an artist when they were far from it.
In school we all boxed each other into what we expected of one another. Often, you would abide by the rules set by your peers and stick to the way they knew you, simply because it was the easy way to live.
And still, seven years out of school, some people are shocked at how much others can change. But the magic thing is that we are not trapped in who we were as teenagers; if we’re lucky, that’s less than half of who we will ever be. There is so much more to live and see, to become, to grow into. To learn. Allow yourself to change and allow anyone acknowledging it to be a compliment (even if it isn’t intended that way).
You have an abundance of potential. A world full of ideas. A completely different person to be. Don’t let what you once were cloud over who you can be.
