Fact: I wasn't a very good high school student.
Fact: I once wrote a poem about my feelings towards a girl rather then do a English Poetry Exam because I was bored with the exam.
Fact: I could be found at Tim Horton's more then I could be found at my Economics class.
Fact: I've been out of high school over 8 years!
Fact: People from my home town sometimes still think I am 18.
How do you escape your past? How does one get away from the impressions he/she imprinted in people's mind? How do you truly convince them that you've changed? Is this my problem? These my friends, are questions I've been wrestling with ever since I escaped the city of Branford. A place where I have lots of great memories and friends but also, a lot of people that like to remind me of my flaws. Flaws that I like to try to keep behind me where they belong.
It's a sign of the evilness of labelling someone and not let them deivate from that. Put someone in a box and expect them to always remain that mold. Yes, I am heaping on the cliches. I also realize that I am blessed with friends that do allow me to change. Do allow me to grow up and try to improve myself. In the end, I shouldn't really let the doubters dictate who I am.
What I should do, is really make sure I don't turn out to be a hypocrite. I don't convince myself that a person can never change. Or believe they will always have the same flaws. Rather realize that people can rise above adversity. They can learn from mistakes. I know that because I am not the same person I was at 18 years old. Though I may still be cursed with the same fashion sense but that is another a tale.
Hey Chris I totally hear you on this one... I myself have been thinking about this very subject for a long time, I am not who I used to be but everyone who is in Haliburton seems to think that I am no matter what I do! Anyway we'll chat more when I get back to Hali, you rock, love ya like a brother!
ReplyDeleteNoelle
I like to call this "grade five syndrome." When large crowds of us from high school see each other, it seems as though everyone expects you to be, "grade five diane" or "grade five chris," etc, just a little bit taller than you were then.
ReplyDeleteIf I have learned nothing, and I too am guilty of charge, it's that people like to put other people in boxes so that we can sort of keep track of where other people are in comparison to us. But as the Bible instructs us not to do, I believe it causes us to try to distinguish who is "better" than so-and-so.
I never knew grade five chris, just camp chris, and he seems to be a pretty cool guy!
You're right, those people that want to put you in a box DON'T deserve your time or even your effort to try and prove them wrong. Let your life speak. I only know the camp Chris too, but if who you were was even a 1/4 of who you are now, You must have been pretty amazing. There, I've put you in the AMAZING box. I'm one of those people!!!! EEK!
ReplyDelete