Life Changes

Where does the time go?

I can’t remember how it came about, but somebody at work brought in a picture of themselves aged around 18, we all had a good giggle at the outrageous clothing and terrible haircuts and everyone said they’d bring their own photos in for people to see. So I dug around in some old photos and found a picture of me shortly after I turned 18 and brought it into work. We collected all the photos together and handed them around to each other in turn and tried to guess who each one was.

Nobody, and I mean nobody could pick me out. Apparently I have changed, some people even point blankly refused to believe it was me…



Me? I didn’t see that much difference, a bit more hair, alright a lot more hair, slightly chubbier face but that was about it.



It just goes to show that life changes us. At some point when I wasn’t looking age has crept up on me and run me over. The various falls, misadventures, hiccups and inevitable unforeseen wrong turns and right turns have all left their marks on us, good and bad and changed us from the naive youngsters we once were into the wisdom burdened adults that face us every morning in the mirror.

I have seen things, done things and been in situations that I will carry with me forever. And if you were ever to look deep into my eyes, into the darkest realms hidden behind all the amazing and beautiful things that I have also been privileged to see and witness you may just catch a glimpse of the dark reality we all live in but are so often blinkered to. Those along with various relationship heart aches and illnesses seem to have taken their toll on the once youthful boy stood in the picture clasped in my hand. Friends often think and joke about the fact that I look a lot older than I actually am, maybe that’s down to me not partaking in the whole male beauty regime that is engulfing the once Neanderthal British male, or maybe it’s life showing through me. That boy I once new so well is now gone and can never return. He has grown up and, no matter how alien it sounds in my mind has become the “adult” looking back down at his own juvenile self. I wonder, if I were to bump into an old college friend that I have not seen since we all departed that wonderful place of study that brought us together, if they would even recognise me. Am I so far departed from the person I once was that I have become completely unrecognisable to somebody I would once have called a close friend?

I wonder…

I wonder if I were to bump into my own 18 year old self if I would recognise myself?

What words of wisdom could I possibly pass onto me? What words of warning? Would I say anything? Telling myself something then would change the person I am now.

Life takes its toll on people in different ways, life changes us whether we want it to or not. But through it all, surely life makes us a better person? I am better for the experiences I have had, for the things I have seen and done. If at the age of 33 I was still the same as the young idiolistic 18 year old in the picture that would be a terrible tragedy. Change has to happen for us to move forward. For us to become the person we are meant to be. Will I look back on a photo of a young 33 year old adult in years to come and think how different I was then? Life continues to happen and change will inevitably follow hand in hand, so I’m sure as far removed as I feel from my adolescent self now I will feel the same in years to come about me now.

Who knows what is around the next corner?

What surprises has life got waiting for us in the shadows?

Whatever it is will transpire no matter what we do to try and avoid it. No matter how wise we think we have become, life always knows better. So why waste the energy trying to fight it? Ride the wave and enjoy the transition from the you now to the you to be…


We are all heading for the person we were destined to be. From that initial lump of clay, each and everyone of us will be moulded by life into a very individual masterpiece.