How My Personality Has Evolved Over the Years

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. Today, in her Sunday Poser, Sadje asks us how we’ve changed, personality-wise, as we’ve grown up.

The first way in which I’m far different from what I was like as a teen, is my self-expression. I am much, much more open about myself and my inner world than I was when I was younger.

Oh wait, I need to nuance that statement slightly. There, after all, was a time in my late teens and early to mid twenties, during which I was more open about myself than I am now. On my first blog, which I started as a diary in 2002 and moved to WP in 2007, I probably showed a little (a lot) more of myself than would be considered normal. Also, no-one probably remembers that I had my current blog URL for a few months in 2011 too, but I do. I particularly remember with a sense of shame a post one of my alters wrote just after I got married saying my spouse probably doesn’t even love me. Well, now nearly fourteen years on I’m convinced that my spouse does love me, but even if I didn’t think so, a public blog wouldn’t be the place where I’d spill my guts.

I do believe that, even though I was extremely private as a teen, the willingness to share my thoughts was always there. I just didn’t trust my audience at the time, ie. my parents and teachers. Now trusting the whole world isn’t necessarily safer, which is why I’m no longer as candid as I was even seven years ago when I started this blog.

Another way in which I’ve changed, which might be related to the above, is that I’m generally more outspoken and assertive than I was as a teen. I still oscillate between passive and aggressive a lot in daily interactions, but where it comes to major life decisions, I’m not as dependent on the approval of others as I was.

Lastly, I’ve probably become less judgmental than I was in my teens. I’ve also become less arrogant. I mean, back then I looked down on people with intellectual disability or those who were less educated than I was in general. It did take me having to rely on the care system myself in order to change that.

As a result of being less judgmental towards others, I have also become less hard on myself. That doesn’t mean that the voice telling me I should be able to live fully independently, isn’t there anymore. I am however able to channel that voice into prioritizing my need for self-determination.

16 thoughts on “How My Personality Has Evolved Over the Years”

  2. Thanks for sharing your journey Astrid. As we grow, we learn many things both about the world we live in and about ourselves too. I’m glad your experience has been a positive one

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    1. Thanks for sharing. I also think that, though most of us do change a little over time, no drastic transformations will happen once we’re past a certain age and certainly not suddenly.

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  4. We all change as we age and some of that is through self-growth but some of it is from the new influences in our lives from the people we meet. I was far more introverted in my younger days than I am now, even though I’m far from being an extrovert in anything but my writing world.

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  6. That sounds like a healthy evolution. I think a person never stops “growing up” all through their lives, some improvements are always happening because of what life throws you.

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  7. People do tend to tone down over the years, Maturity I guess creeping into our systems and then, there’s always when we hit the lower counters on our tolerance levels, I am already at ‘zero’ at this stage.

    Gosh! I need to write a separate post on this soon, I am already a day late

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