How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
Today’s writing prompt asks “how do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?”.
I’m going to go out on a limb for this one. I’m not sure I’ve ever been overly influenced by anything happening around me, or to me. While I’ve written in the past that we are the product of everybody we have known, everywhere we have lived, and everything that has happened to us, I’m not sure the effect is that direct or measurable. Perhaps I might volunteer that we are unwittingly shaped by our relationships, environment, and decisions.
I do think the passage of time has made a difference to my outlook. I’m definitely less optimistic than I once was, and quite a lot more cycnical - although a lot less than many, it often seems. I don’t tend to look back. I don’t beat myself up over what might have been.
Wow - this is quite the self psycho-analysis session, isn’t it.
I’m trying to think if any particular life events have obviously shaped me. I guess the most obvious would be the “sliding door” moments. I’ve written about it before - when you find yourself standing at a juncture, and know the decision you make is pivotal - not only to yourself, but perhaps to somebody else.
Would that friend still be in your life now? Would you have ended up with that person? Would you have ended up living there? What are they doing now? Did you make the right choice? What if you had done this, that, or the other instead?
None of these questions change anything - and I think that’s why I try not to look back. We all reminisce of course - and remember those pivotal moments - but wishing, hoping, and dreaming about the should-haves and could-haves gets you nowhere in a hurry.
It is nice to wonder sometimes though. What if?