Surprise (Part III)
People change… a lot :-/
I’m really surprised at how much people change when they hit the real world. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s genuinely bad. But most times it’s just a chapter book unfolding with post-college being the first really new chapter of life.
When I stop to think about it, how different was life really from 0 – 18? Parents paid for a bunch of stuff, school, sports, activities, but not lots of real change. I know I’m in the lucky bucket with regards to all of that, and that is what it is.
And then you hit college (well, me and most of my friends did), and… what really changed? Parents still paid for a bunch of things. I got a bunch of jobs, but that was just money in my pocket and 401k. Otherwise a bunch of activities, sports, and that’s about it. Cool, so another four years of being the same old same.
And then it hit! Real life.
Some people got depressed, and couldn’t find jobs. Some people got killer jobs, and just exploded in their career. Others just stalled. And holy smokes did it affect everyone’s personality, outlook, and trajectory.
I know for a fact that I believed in high school and college that we were all in control of our own trajectories. Now I know that that’s not true.
And the way it changed people really surprised me.