via europa.eu
1989. What a year.
Tiananmen Square. The Salman Rushdie affair. Exxon Valdez. Poll Tax in the UK. The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Solidarity winning the Polish elections. The flight of people into the West from Hungary. The freeing of the Guildford Four. The end of the Berlin Wall. The Velvet Revolution. The fall of Ceaucescu.
In one mere year the world had changed utterly.
It was like that in my life too. In 1989 I turned 21. I was in my last year in college, I got my driving license and I travelled to the USA for the first time, on a wonderful four-month work visa in Ohio. A year later and I had a major career decision made – one that influences what I do to this day. I would be in Belfast, doing some real work, gaining new friends, traveling to far flung places and looking upon life with a very different set of beliefs compared to the preceeding decades.
What is truly odd is how recent it still feels to me. As if it were just yesterday. In a sense, I feel that little enough has changed about me since then. The things that enthused me then still occupy my mind now. I’m pretty sure that if I was blogging back then that I would be writing about much the same things as I write about now. If I were to write down my personal interests and fascinations, many of them would date back precisely to this period in my life. It’s as if a flowering took place then, and I have spent most of the rest of my life building upon its foundations.
Of course I have changed in many ways. I know lots more. I understand myself better. I have much greater responsibilities. I know what love, loss and fatherhood means. I have had my setbacks, and I have learned to take them on the chin. There are a few more grey hairs, blotches and scars, but these are the inevitable external factors associated with the passing years. Deep down, I am essentially the same man who emerged from adolescence those twenty years ago.
It’s scary. I strongly believe that life is all about personal development and growth, and yet it’s stunning to observe how little my thinking has moved on since I first moved into adulthood. I’d like to feel that during the next 20 years (should I be lucky enough to experience them) that I can develop myself in surprising and different ways. As I am learning however, this may be quite a formidable challenge.
Passive Impressions 
Interesting. Some of my interests and likes are the same as they were when I was 21 (reading, drawing, history) but some are completely different (outdoor activities, wildlife, gardening). I recognise the girl I was, but only vaguely 🙂
Oh, and Happy Birthday if I’ve understood correctly that its today?!!
No – not my birthday, just the usual random neural firing!
Maybe there is a bit of cognitive bias at play (isn’t there always?), but there is certainly something about my early adulthood that seems to stand out.
At 29 (or 28 since I didn’t turn 29 until later that year) I entered Med School on rather shaky legs. Being bred and born in rather proletarian settings I was the 1st one in the extended family to enter Uni. With three kids under age six and a rather unsupportive husband it wasn’t an easy time, but 5½ years later I graduated with good results. Even managed to be top of course on occasions.
My “destiny” was to be a part time working mother still doing everything “womanish” the old fashion way. I’m glad I dared to take the step. Do I have to mention I’m no longer married to my children’s Dad?
How interesting.
I find the fact that I can draw a fairly straight cognitive line between myself at 20 and myself now to be rather reassuring. Some opinions have changed, not so many biases though, but I find it comforting to know that on present evidence the ‘me’ of 20 years hence will be the same me.
Thought provoking post, Colm.
B