Finding our doppelgangers

"Look we've all been searching for the five doppelgangers, right? But eventually, over time, we all become our own doppelgangers, you know, these completely different people who just happen to look like us." ~Ted Mosby (aka. Josh Radnor) from How I Met Your Mother

Life is about rediscovery. If anyone says that they are the same person that they were one, two or 20 years ago, I would say that either a) they are lying to you and themselves or b) they need to take a closer look at their life because something is wrong.

Everyday we change, we shift, and we grow. Sometimes, we just don't realize this until several years later.

These shifts can occur on a small scale, such as a change in shoes, or on a large scale, as in coping with the death of a loved one.

Although some might disagree, I would even argue that the two are equally as important. They have happened and your life has changed a bit because of them.

This is an optimistic process. None of us really wants to be the same person we were when we were 6 or 16 or whatever. We might sometimes wish for those days, as life did seem easier then and there were no major life decisions to be made for most of us, but we could never really go back to that person or those times.

There is a reason that we are no longer that person; we have adapted to life. The key is to not harden in the face of all the difficulties of life. It's the innocence and kindness that we love about children; it's that same innocence and kindness that we long to keep. As we should.

At the same time, we have to keep moving forward. And we have to remember that everyone is changing everyday.

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them. ~George Bernard Shaw

The things that mattered in high school, the things that major issues to us then are not important. And the reason that our best friends stopped talking to us are dead and gone. We have to learn that people change because we have changed.

Most importantly, we have to stop evaluating ourselves and others by this old standard we hold. We have all changed.