NationStates Jolt Archive

So as you've grown older how as the view of the world, your family, friends and life in general changed?

First off for me it would have to be the friends. I've noticed that the friends I have back home are so incredibly immature and close minded that I don't even know why I still call them friends. My new friends at university are the best I ever had allowing me to be me.

The World: From a young teen 6 years ago to now at the age of 19 I've seen the world is unfair, cruel and more complicated than anything ever.

Family: Nothing really. I still love em as much as ever.

I got new glasses a while ago, so I can see better now. Other than that, I stopped believing in God and thinking gays were icky much longer ago.

You're still young, 19 is hardly world-weary. You'll find that most of your awesome friends in uni will disappear when they graduate but you'll probably be fed-up of them long before then.

I eventually gave up trying to find anything nice or good about my family. I only have contact with 3 of them any more, the rest of them are just evil bastards and I'm tired of pretending anything else.
I realised I don't believe in god. I always suspected as much, but I needed more intellectual honesty than was available "at home" to think things through to the end.
I gradually became aware that I'm not ugly, no matter what my family tells me.
I understood why multicultural is so much better than suffocating monoculture.

And a good few more things I can't think of right now. In short, I was a very different person growing up than I am now.

You're still young, 19 is hardly world-weary. You'll find that most of your awesome friends in uni will disappear when they graduate but you'll probably be fed-up of them long before then.

Yes but I have grown older since.....well since I was born.



And who are you and how do you know how old I am?

Shit yeah!

If you want to be amazed by perceptions changing, have a kid.

If you want to be amazed by perceptions changing, have a kid.

But I don't want a kid just yet. Maybe in 6 or 7 years.

I'm not advising you to have one, but merely suggesting that having a child will result in massive perception changes. It was something I wasn't prepared for, not that changing perceptions is "bad." Just, well, different.

I've no doubt that it does change perceptions and its understandable. So how did your perceptions change after having a child?

I've no doubt that it does change perceptions and its understandable. So how did your perceptions change after having a child?

Hah how long have you got?

Hah how long have you got?

All day!

Well, a nice simple example. 16 months ago, if The Wife or I didn't feel like cooking, we could walk to the local bar, order some wings, and have a drink or two, and watch some TV there. It was time well spent, and nary a thought about the cost.

Now all I can think about is how we are eating and drinking his college fund if we go out to eat.

So as you've grown older how as the view of the world, your family, friends and life in general changed?
The world? The world is not the happy, idealistic place I thought it was, but neither is it the rigid and foreign system I thought it was. It is a flawed institution that is made by flawed people, but which people themselves can change and must change in order for its flaws to be overcome. I think it is fair to say that although I have become more realistic in my world view, I have developed a strong, unyielding faith that we can make it better if we all work to improve it rather than trying to run away from it, and in that sense I have perhaps become even more of an idealist than I was in my younger days.

My immediate family are not just people I rely on for food and shelter any more; they are people I trust and care for greatly, and people who trust and care for me also. My dad is possibly one of my best friends, and although that may seem like a rather sad statement, I wouldn't give up this friendship for anything.

Part of the problem of being a mature student in a collegiate system is that naturally the people you interact with on a daily basis are going to have considerably different motivations to yourself in terms of what they want to spend their time on. The resulting difficulty I have in relating to them is partly my own fault in not being the sort of person who gains pleasure from "night life", which is why I spend much more time with graduate students than with my peers. It is a consequence of this that I am essentially an outsider in every context in which I appear, which has undoubtedly played a part in the way I have psychologically developed as a sort of "sage in the crowd". It's pretty lonely sometimes, since although I meet with and know a lot of people, I never really get to live alongside them in any meaningful sense, which is why I'm grateful for my college chapel in giving me a context to function in (which some might find weird, given my vigorous agnosticism, but I am something of a mystic anyway, so it suits me fine).

I could talk for hours about how my views on life itself have changed, but since (regrettably) I have things to do, that can wait for another time.

After my son was born I had to stop caring about solely myself and care for another person, which in turn made me care about even more people, which in turn caused me to shift from a "somewhat" conservative viewpoint to a "super duper holy shit" liberal viewpoint.

Completely different person.

Basically kids = awesome.

I think that, if your perception hasn't changed a little bit in a day, then that day has been a wasted one.

I've had many wasted days then. :(

I've had many wasted days then. :(

You post here, that's pretty much a given.

[/obligatory]

I've become more cynical.

I've had many wasted days then. :(

Yup, same. :(

You post here, that's pretty much a given.Ha! Trudat.

So as you've grown older how as the view of the world, your family, friends and life in general changed?

The older I get the more I realize that people are stupid and the human race is likely not worth the effort of saving from WWIII/Peak Oil/Climate Change/etc. Fuck 'em.

I need glasses nowadays.

I've gone from hyper-liberal to hyper-conservative to militant moderate. I'm more tolerant of people, yet less trusting.

i've become less radical. its still there, what i believe in, but real life has just taken over

i've become less radical. its still there, what i believe in, but real life has just taken over

Heh yeah it's kinda sad the way the life just beats the idealist out of ya huh?

I'm a lot less quiet than I use to be. I learned to really think for myself and to use my own best judgment and not rely on what other people consider to be right.

I would have to say I no longer see the world as black and white. With most things being far more complicated than they might appear.

A lot less quiet than I used to be also. After I moved out on my own after High School a lot of perspectives changed for me.

Heh yeah it's kinda sad the way the life just beats the idealist out of ya huh?

totally... i mean, i still care and believe in what i used to, but i just don't have the time to think about it or do anything about it, or even debate it (eg on here)

paying bills becomes more important, sadly

If you want to be amazed by perceptions changing, have a kid.

I'll get the barbie going, you get that thing on a spit. Have a beer!

So as you've grown older how as the view of the world, your family, friends and life in general changed?

First off for me it would have to be the friends. I've noticed that the friends I have back home are so incredibly immature and close minded that I don't even know why I still call them friends. My new friends at university are the best I ever had allowing me to be me.

The World: From a young teen 6 years ago to now at the age of 19 I've seen the world is unfair, cruel and more complicated than anything ever.

Family: Nothing really. I still love em as much as ever.

I no longer believe in morals.

I am more logical.

I don't give a rat's ass about abortion, gay marriage, drugs, or global warming anymore.

I think the world is a complete dump. Its one redeeming quality is that you can laugh at its absurdity.

I have less tolerance for Christians.

I have less tolerance for atheists.

I prefer the Italian to the French style of fencing.

I have completely distanced myself from the Republican party, and talk about the times I supported it like a guy talks about the times he got drunk at a high-school prom.

I feel that the Iraq war is a waste of money.

I feel that most of my family are complete nutters, but no more then I am.

I now perceive people as being worth loving, including myself.

I look at things in a far less biased fashion than I used to.

I look at the world from a much broader perspective than I used to.

I've realized more so than I did before how important my friends and family are.
I'm also realizing that I am one of the least materialistic people I know. I could easily walk away from everything I own and have very few regrets. I've done it before when my house flooded, I could do it again. Apparently not a lot of people can do that.

I prefer the Italian to the French style of fencing.

I still prefer the "Whatever my coach tells me to do" style. :p

I found out the truth about ufo's

I stopped giving a shit. I now bring nothing to the table. I feel the world will end in some sort of apocalyptic-anarchic nightmare (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/322150)... and I just can't contain my excitement.

I've become more confident in my ability to do well academically and career-wise. Unfortunately that's also come with a disappointment as I realise that many people seem to have very little ability. I came to uni thinking I'd be surrounded by smart, inspiring people - unfortunately that wasn't the case.

That realisation also shaped my politics away from the left and towards free-market libertarianism. I think that if your politics don't match both your perspective on life and your plans for yourself, something's wrong.

I've also become comfortable with the fact that I'm not a party animal. When I turned 18, it felt almost as though I was expected to hit the pubs and clubs every weekend, but all I did was waste a lot of time, energy and money without enjoying myself. Unfortunately that's come with me not spending much time with my old friends anymore, but I figure they'll either see the light eventually or I don't have to care.

But the most important thing is that I know what I want from life now, and it's just a matter of putting my back into it to get it.

I still prefer the "Whatever my coach tells me to do" style. :p

Best way to tell: when you are drilling parry four does your coach give you a signal to riposte (withdrawing the blade), or does he just expect you to do it automatically, directly after the parry?

Next: as your are reposting do you just stick your arm straight out, or do you have to hold the coach's blade as you go?

The former answers on the two questions are French, the latter are Italian.

I've gotten rather more jaded and slightly more streetwise, which is useful.
Also: not everyone's a total wanker. I've learnt that recently.