How much of who you were is who you are?

Question

This question becomes more complex as the years pass....time leaves its impression, like it or not, it seems....it does, indeed, "march on..." When so much of who we are and what we do can be attributed to whatever circumstances, roles we have, hormones, knowledge we have at any one time, or even memory we choose to remember or forget, what parts of the self--or your self--have endured/endure, and what parts changed/change? How much of who you were is who you are?

Answer 1

i am all that happen to me and changed me. i did not spend 3 yr over in viet nam and not come away a changed person. i did not come back to the states and get yelled at and spit on that this did not change me to become who i am today. and the way i look at things and treat others. finding my wife and having her in my life to change me back to a more normal person save me form being a herment and living alone. she make me get back in life and make me play by the rules of someone that is normal. i know i mistreated many and for that i ask forgiveness for. i know i touched them and changed them and for that i am sorry. but each of us touch and change each person we meet. think of that the next time you say something not so nice. each lesson we learn we can pass on to someone else help them get over past hurts. that is what life is all about helping others to get over it and move on.

Answer 2

Thank you for the invitation to answer.

My idea on this issue, which conflates a number of classical philosophical problems (i.e. the problem of classifications, the problem of nature vs. nurture and the problem of ipseity) is probably too simplistic, but I will tell you what I think anyway. In my opinion, when we as thinking creatures receive the world through our senses, we have a certain genetic make-up which pre-disposes us to interpret it in particular ways. Conditioning may be able to do away with certain colours that we paint the world, however there remain some basic unalterable components of our configuration, and as memories contribute to the system which produces our thinking, I think the past can begin to overtake all else... This would explain a number of things in human civilisation, such as the continuity of culture and tradition and why we are unable to rationally divorce ourselves from oppressive forms of practices and thinking.

However, I feel that there is some scope for development - if there was not, we could not hope, no? Therefore, I feel that we can free ourselves from our past: as James Joyce wrote in Ulysses, we can try to free ourselves from the 'nightmare of the past'. Also, I think the nature of memory itself produces a mix of the changing and the fixed - it fixes the changing present into the mind, therefore there are two sides: the eternal "I am" is nothing less than the reconciliation of change and continuity...

Of course, you must realise the assumptions that are being made in my assertion - I am claiming a certain idea for human agency - that it is somehow context-dependent and simultaneously ingrained - this is a controversial middle ground as you are well aware. And of course, my idea on memory may be challenged...

I hope my answer has contributed to this debate, although I am unsure as to how convincing it is.

Regards,

Suneel

Answer 3

Absolutely everything. Everything I was has left its impression on me as I am now. Every experience I made has contributed in some way to who I am. So the longer you live, the more unique you get, in some way, because you accumulate more and more experiences that make you who you are.
Of course I have changed, everyone changes all the time, but that doesn't mean that who I was has nothing to do with who I am now. On the contrary, the way I was a long time ago actually caused me to be the way I am right now. If I hadn't had certain relationships, hadn't held certain opinions, I would be a totally different person right now.

Answer 4

Too much, and it took a lot of therapy over the years to get where I am today, and it isn't over yet.
It's a good thing we can learn and develop ourselves into someone that we didn't want to be in the first place.
I can't change where I came from, but I certainly can change what I was taught.
Because of it, I have endured.

Answer 5

A huge part.. and like it or not, a large part of that is who my parents are. I am basically the same person inside but my experiences have taught me to grow. That growth included change but the core of who i am hasn't changed much at all.
I grew up, did things that i am proud of and things i am not proud of. There are elements of my actions that i have changed but i have never wanted to change the person who is behind them. make sense? For example, an addictive personality always remains but the person can learn to curb the behaviour. Even if you may wish that element of your personality wasn't ever there, it doesn't go away so you learn to live with it, respect what it is and that it is part of who you are. Only then can you be prepared to not act on the impulsive behavior that it induces.
So.. in saying all of that. I think I am very much who I have always been but with age, have learned who that person is and chosen to act on the parts of myself that i enjoy myself and others close to me enjoy. The parts that i don't like about my personality are still very much there but i recognize them and try to channel them another positive way. I am talking about since being an adult. I have always had something inside me that made me like who i was and i still do. There have been many times when i didnt so much like something that i did but i kind of always thought it was nice to be me, even when times were really rough. In the words of Charles Bukowski "With all of these rivers of sh*t, as i look at the ceiling at night in the dark, i get what some would consider an arrogant thought.. its still nice to be Bukowski"
I know what he is talking about and ive always liked being me so perhaps that has a lot to do with changing the core of a person. I dont doubt that a person could be different to who they were now that i think about your question in relation to others... just not me.
Now im not even making sense to myself. LOL.. hope you can make something out of this answer and get what i am trying to say.

Answer 6

I am always who I was, but as time passed and I grew I progressed and improved who I was

I had to make mistakes though, mores the pity, and some tough lessons were learned before I got to where I am. I also had to make many sacrifices but now I can see all was meant to be to help me become who I am today-the same person but with wisdom-I left the fool behind when I could finally see what was always there and I was either blind to it, ignorant to it or simply fought it.
I always believed in my heart, but didn't always listen to it. Now I hear it
My instinct never failed me, but I failed it many times, now I follow it and live by it and hopefully not make as many mistakes as I have done.
There is always room for improvement, and I will always look for the improvement

Answer 7

"Who you are" needs to be more than "who you were". Let us take it into figures - you were 1 and you are 2. In my opinion it must be varying every moment. Means you should not live the same life next moment. If moment is to small fraction, let us take a day. That is the true growth in life. But in most of the case we deteriorate. Means "who you are" is less than "who you were". The aim behind the whole life itself is this spiritual reason.

Answer 8

well i have always hated liars and cheats,but when one loose ones health they look at life in a new perspective

Answer 9

100% and that gets me into trouble alot.lol

Answer 10

too much