Did you become the person you wanted to be?

[begin_within]

And if not are you still going to become that person? Me, not yet and yes.

[Lethe]

1. the question, for me, was always who do i want to be

it's taken me decades to figure that out, and it's still going on

it's a lot easier to figure out what you don't like than what you do, for me at least

[Haole Girl]

2. No

It's too late for me to go back and re-do 40 years.

It's ok, though. I could have done a lot worse.

[flvegan]

3. If I think about it, I'm actually a bit better.

I'm not as successful money-wise, but as a person I'm far better.

[jobycom]

4. Not yet, and I no longer know if I want to. I'm not the person I was then.

[femmocrat]

5. No.

Nope.

[UTUSN]

6. Now, why did you bring THAT up?!1 But I'm not crapping on your thread. n/t

[begin_within]

7. It was posted on another site I go to, and I thought it was an interesting topic.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. No. And now I don't have the chance to be who I wanted to be...

Which was MrG's aged wife.

[Haole Girl]

10. ScreamingMeemie!!

I love your new name!!

Oh, btw... :hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. ...

:hug:

Thanks, I need a little anonymity.

[FedUpWithIt All]

9. This sounds bad i guess but yes. I think i am the person i wanted to be.

I am imperfect and accept it.
I am content.
I aspire to my own determination of success.
I love hard.
I stand up for my own personal truth.
I can stand alone, unafraid.
I try to encourage.
I have gotten pretty good at letting go of regret.
I am able to see my past ridiculousnesses as learning experiences.
I think ridiculousnesses is legitimate word.
I am content in my body, no matter what form it is in this month.
I am loved hard.
I love the fact that life, myself and everything in and around these things is fluid.
I am flexible.
I can ask forgiveness.
I realize that winning for winnings sake is not all that rewarding and sometimes is the surest way to come away without the prize.
I have learned that compromise always goes two ways.
I have learned to be grateful for EVERY SINGLE MOMENT.

I accept that my loved beauty may be someone else's :puke:

And there is always room for much improvement.

:hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

25. All that,

and it's such a strange mix with your screen name.

[FedUpWithIt All]

61. Yes. It would be. LOL My u/n came from my frustration with the last administration.

And the way people often treat each other. I had seen too many war pictures.


:hi:

[mentalsolstice]

11. I didn't live up to my potential...

Hopefully, I lived up to my compassion.

[DarkTirade]

12. I'm not a ninja archaologist with force powers.

So no.

[LeftyMom]

13. No, I rethought some things.

I'm mostly happy with who I am. The few parts of my life that need working on are being addressed.

[Nickster]

15. No, not by a longshot. I'm still trying to come up with a plan to get to that place.

[Inchworm]

16. I'm workin on it

I have a good 50 year left in me :)

:hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

17. Sure, because I never was anything other than that.

Never sold out my ideals or turned away from my passions. I always was who I am (though I guess that sounds a bit weird, grammatically).

Now, did I do in my life what I intended to do? That's a totally different question. The answer is, not quite yet. Oh, I've nibbled around the edges of it, but I'm not there yet. Give it a few more years.

[XemaSab]

18. I failed to become Audrey Horne

:cry:

[ghostsofgiants]

34. Tragic.

[XemaSab]

36. Seriously

:cry:

The hair: yes.

The body, the money, and the 'tude: no.

:cry:

[ghostsofgiants]

37. I've been watching the first season the past couple of days.

My girlfriend keeps complaining that the music is too creepy, haha.

[XemaSab]

45. Put on the first season soundtrack.

Corner her when she's least expecting it.

Make threatening advances.

Recite the "fire walk with me" poem repeatedly.

See how creeped out she is THEN. :D

[ghostsofgiants]

47. Are you TRYING to get me killed?

:P

[XemaSab]

48. Are you more like:

1. BOB.
2. Leo.
3. Bobby.
4. James.

:shrug:

Yes, this is a "How whipped are you?" poll. :D

[ghostsofgiants]

49. Bahahaha...

My guess would be James.

[XemaSab]

53. Note well that I left out

Big Ed, Sheriff Truman, and Andy from the "whipped" poll.

Do I need to go there? :shrug:

[ghostsofgiants]

70. Hahaha, no, I think James works.

[Ivan Sputnik]

19. Pretty much

I'm the person I want to be. But I'm apparently not the person the world wants me to be. Oh well.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

20. no. no. it is already too late for me. the end.

[Zavulon]

21. I was going to be the center fielder for the Montreal Expos.

The team moved, though, so I'd be retired by now anyway (I was only willing to play for Montreal).

If by "person" you don't mean profession, then I'd take that to mean you're basically asking us if we're happy with ourselves as people. In my case, the answer is yes.

[begin_within]

24. I kind of left it open-ended, meaning career, or personality, or anything.

[harmonicon]

22. no

I've actually talked about this at rather great length recently. The me from the past would be horrified at who I am now, however, I love who I am and where I am in life. Looking back, I was just silly. I wouldn't have even considered this a possibility, so it's all for the best. Thinking about who I wanted to be was done with a much more narrow view of the world than I have now. Now I don't know who/what I want to be in the future. It's scary, but it's pretty great too.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

23. No

In fact I'm the furthest thing from it. I'll keep trying but I don't hold out much hope

[Redstone]

26. Yes.

Redstone

[Tangerine LaBamba]

27. Ultimately, yes

I like the kind of person I am. My trip through this life hasn't been simple, and nothing that I expected when I was younger came to pass. It went, and so did I, in a direction I could never have foreseen.

But, where I am now, yeah, I like it.

[lizziegrace]

28. Not even close n/t

[Shine]

29. There's no goal. I'm just enjoying the ride.

I am "in-process"....as we all are.

[ghostsofgiants]

35. This is the correct answer.

:D

[Angel]

30. In A Way Yes

I wanted to be a good mother, lover, and friend. I wanted to believe there was good in everyone until I personally was proven wrong by that person. To over look the anger and sarcasm that I hear to see the true feelings showing in the eyes. I have become that person. I am still working on not looking into the past to those that hurt me and forgive. That part of me I am still striving for. To be honest...I never thought I would live to see this age. So just being alive is the person I wanted to be.

[Adsos Letter]

31. Well, I made it past the age of 25...

that seemed pretty iffy at one point.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

32. Im close

and I also found the person, I want to be with...forever.

[crimsonblue]

33. hmmm

no, and probably not. nobody ever does.

[Critters2]

38. No. And no.

I wanted to be a mother.

[Lucian]

39. Not yet.

Ask me again in six years.

I hope to become the person I want to be.

[ThomCat]

40. No. I never wanted to become disable, in constant pain,

and unable to take care of myself. :(

I never wanted to be alone. I wanted to have a family and be surrounded by kids...

I wanted to still be working, and still doing some of my volunteer work on the side.

I wanted a lot of things I'll never have. But that's what life gives us.

[PaddyBlueEyes]

41. Hey Buddy

You arent alone, even when you think you are. There are alot of us here, who care about you..and think about you..even ones like me who dont say it alot. Peace :hug:

[ThomCat]

42. Thank you.

:hug:

[PaddyBlueEyes]

43. no problem.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

63. ....

:hug:

[ThomCat]

72. :)

:hug:

[Lady Effingbroke]

44. .

.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

46. no.

:eyes:

[JeffreyWilliamson]

50. This is an excellent, fascinating question...

I didn't become the person I wanted to become because I made a few mistakes along the way. In the process of working through them, I became a much better person than I had originally wanted to be. Not wealthy, but better in a number of other ways.

And at some point during that process, I discovered that it's not the destination that's important, it's the journey.

[TrogL]

51. I wanted to be a mad scientist

I'm a UNIX systems administrator so that's probably close enough.

[Drunken Girlfriend]

52. Life is what you make it

I don't think life has turned out the way we thought it would,regardless of social status,romantic endeavors,etc.

But I do believe in accepting yourself for who you are,
and making improvements and striving to be the best you can be.

That being said,I do wish I had done some things in life differently
( I am human after all).

However,our mistakes make us who we are,so deep down,I have nothing to feel bad about.

I am a firm believer that good or bad,things are meant to happen for a reason.

Je ne regrette rien( I regret nothing)

No one has the picture perfect life,although it may seem that some people do.

We all have problems,issues,and insecurities.

Life is really what you make it.

[quakerboy]

54. If I had, noone would ever know.

and If I was going to, you still wouldn't know. Even if I told you.

[quakerboy]

55. not even with a duplicate post.

[SarahB]

56. I became the person I thought I should be.

Then I figured out that I was much more happy being myself (even if it doesn't blend as well).

[Marrah_G]

57. No and probably not.

Reality doesn't always turn out the way you dream it will.

[dropkickpa]

58. No fucking clue

I wasn't really sure who I wanted to be, I more had a "who I DIDN'T want to be" and I've been quite successful in that one. I didn't want to be a bad person, and I'm not, so Yay me!

[BarenakedLady]

59. Not even close

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't change anything, because I have three beautiful wonderful smart kids who I wouldn't trade for the world.

But I'm starting a new chapter in my life that focuses on my personal development. I let myself disappear over the past 15 years. I'm trying to find her again.

[mnhtnbb]

69. Producing wonderful kids will drain you. Our society doesn't begin

to value what we moms contribute and how we deny our own development in order to give to the next generation.

I'm with you; now it's my turn.

[old mark]

60. Pretty much, but it seemed like it just worked out that way, was not

anything done on purpose.

mark

[Libertyfirst]

75. Yes,

[raccoon]

62. I'm working on it.

:-) This is an excellent question, Begin.

I like discussions about topics such as this one.

When I was young and foolish, I wanted to be rich and famous one day.

Now I don't care about being famous, I wouldn't mind being rich, but having enough to have a fairly decent lifestyle is OK.

I believe now what kind of person I am is more important than either of the above.

[meegbear]

64. Nope - I was gonna be a doctor, but a friend of mine did achieve his ...

he said he wanted to be a biker and is now a Hell's Angel. At least one of my friends kept his dream alive.

[Burma Jones]

65. Mostly......

When I was 17 or 18, my Dad sat me down and asked me what I wanted out of life. I told him I wanted not to be overweight, be very well educated and just sort of odd and have a good Wife, Happy Children and Financial Security, but only after being very wild until I was 30. It did work out that way.....only I'm still overweight......

Funny though, my folks divorced when I was 15 and my brothers and I lived without much adult supervision for a few years, I think I was craving some sort of "Leave it to Beaver" Nirvana.......

[Rabrrrrrr]

66. I became even more of the person I wanted to be

Gentle, patient, moral, generous, friendly, inclusive, loving, happy. Just to name a few.

[Phillycat]

67. Not yet and yes, too.

[SKKY]

68. It's always a work in progress for me. I don't think I'll ever be who/what I want to be...

...because how I define that seems to be in constant flux.

[tekisui]

71. No regrets, no expectations. Just enjoying the ride called life.

It has taken me places I would have never imagined. I am looking forawrd to what happens next.

[LanternWaste]

73. No (thank goodness)

No (thank goodness).

The person I wanted to turn out to be was pontificating, self-absorbed, and thought he was smarter than most other people. He wanted to win arguments rather than be right, and thought that everyone who didn't agree with him was just. plain. wrong.

The person I did turn out to be is actually rather pleasant and likes people, their opnions and their stories. :)

[PassingFair]

74. I am the same person I've always been... so I guess the answer is no...

wait, I don't understand the question...

:bounce:

[MrMickeysMom]

76. I am the leader I wanted to be...

in the making, that is.

[CBHagman]

77. Absolutely not, and yet...

...now that I'm 50 I finally understand a lot of things that I couldn't have grasped at 17, 30, and 40, and I'm a lot happier with my state of mind.

[RagAss]

78. Constantly and renewing every fraction of a second.

[amitten]

79. Yes. n/t

[sohndrsmith]

80. As far as who I am in my heart and soul? Yes. But I'm not a finished

product yet in that regard so I'm jazzed about that.

As far as conventional success, career, and outward things? I am further behind now in my mid-40's than I was at 19. That scares me out of my wits.

But my conscience and spirit are hard won and I'm grateful for what I've learned and what what I will learn.
I've raised a daughter who called me one night a year or so ago - mad as heck at me, and she said, "Why did you have to teach me to have a conscience! Now I can't do the wrong thing - you ruined it for me!"

She was actually really mad, because she wanted to do something she knew was not right, and she was fighting with herself because she knew that she'd be stuck with her actions whether she got caught by someone else or not.

We ended up laughing about it, she knew how silly she sounded, but she realized how good she felt, too and she - more often than not - makes the better, kinder, less destructive choice and as tough and unfair as her life has been (and her distance from me which was someone else's choice) I've still been able to be a good mom and I will always continue.

If I had to choose between never hearing that having my life be comfortable and pleasant from now on, or hearing that and having nothing but pain and poverty... it's not even debatable. Nothing is more priceless than knowing that your child will be a better, more loving, confident person and able to better nourish her own soul as an adult - because her parent nourished her soul as a child. Clean clothes and healthy food and tending to all physical needs is crucial. But just as crucial is tending to and feeding their emotional, cognitive needs too.

But I am tired of the poverty and pain thing... but turning it around when I've lost so much I'm almost inside out... not entirely promising. But... I keep trying.