The old order changeth, giving place to new...

Ever wondered what it really takes to know a person? Or even realizing that you don't know a close friend? Every person has her individual journey in life and the experiences shape the personality in a unique manner. What might have impacted me negatively could be an inspiration point for another person. Though they say a person never really changes, its a fact that circumstances keep influencing her beliefs and shaping the character in the same way as wind continuously erodes the rocks. The change is more evident for the 'softer' and easily 'impressionable' rocks while gradual for the 'tougher' ones. Which is better, is for no one to say. Its like asking who decides what is ethical?

 

If you meet a person after few years, the changes are more explicit. You might have known them in the past and yet, you might feel that a stranger is standing. Its difficult to say who has changed how much because you are not same either. I have found myself less trusting in past few years. Some grow mature, some bitter, some positive etc etc. Few qualities can be imbibed but mostly are a result of what we undergo. As the years go by, I tend to discover something more about myself and others. Ironically, my closest friends are the ones for whom my opinion hasn't changed much i.e. I feel they are quite similar to what I thought they were earlier. It makes me feel secure about them; to know that I know them after all. There are also few friends whom I cant stand anymore because I don't connect to them, they are like strangers now. Hopefully, they cant stand me either. In fact, I feel better about people whom I disliked earlier and continue to dislike; at least I know them. And of course, there are people whom you have recently known and discovered i.e. there has not been time yet to rediscover them.

 

Change might be good for something, bad for something but in the end, its 'inevitable'. I think Rudyard Kipling has put it down soberly-

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--IF by Rudyard Kipling (a part only)   

This is for The Friends, without whom I wont be Me - Pr, Ak, Tz, Jz, Mo, Ra, Si, De, Pa, Sh, Vi, Shr, S, B