Making progress

Last Friday I went to a party organised by a large group of male friends that originally became friends at high school and have stayed friends ever since they left high school four years ago. In our school year at the VWO there were about sixty people and we all got along quite well. Not everyone was close with each other of course, but no one was excluded and the atmosphere amongst the people of our school year was always pleasant. After we left high school the contact with most people lessened or simply seized. Too bad, but those things happen. At the party I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in four years, some I hadn’t seen for even longer. So, it sometimes felt like a reunion. It was good to see those faces again.

After the party I came to the conclusion that you have three types of people when you haven’t seen someone in a very long time. First, you have those people that haven’t changed one bit. They are still exactly the same. They dress the same way, look the same, haven’t gained or lost weight, have the same haircut, have the same attitude and could have stepped out of a picture taken four years ago. Then, you have those people that have changed dramatically. They are the opposite of the first group. They not only look totally different, but more importantly their attitude and the way they act is very different from what you remember from them. The last group fits in between the other two. People in this group aren’t exactly the same anymore, but they haven’t changed dramatically either. They have progressed and developed, both in appearance and on the inside.

I consider myself one of the last group. In essence I’m still the same person I was four years ago, but I’ve developed and have changed for the better. At least, that’s how I see it. I’ve learned so much since I’ve left high school and started at university. I’ve learned to think for myself, learned to handle criticism, learned to cooperate and work together with others. I’ve made friends with people who have totally different interests in life, but that doesn’t matter because you all have a common goal. I’ve always been very much aware of what other people think of me, but I’ve learned to let that go and do what feels good to me. Just to be utterly selfish at times. I believe I’ve grown during these past four years. It’s been a true learning-experience. And now that this particular period has almost come to an end I will be starting a new chapter in my life and hopefully I’ll go on learning, progressing and developing. Because to me, that’s what life is about.