We all change over our lifetimes. More than that, everyone acts differently towards different people. Would you, for instance, act the same in front of your teacher as you would your best friend? Of course not. No more would you act the same towards your best friend as you would your boy/ girlfriend. I find myself, on the cusp of adulthood, about to plunge into a life full of experiences, yet living a lie. Being someone I’m not. Not the same lie, though: different lies to different people. Lies to cover any blemish in my personality, anything that I consider undesirable can be gone in a moment.

I have lived in several different places, each time, developing a new personality to suit who I’m with. This is alright, it’s ok. We’re all different people all through our lives. The trouble is, when two lives cross over. What happens when you take a new best friend to see an old best friend? You see their surprise at how you act. How different you are. The horrible realisation that I see in their eyes: the realisation that they don’t know me anymore.

I can tell you that this is a horrible experience. It awakens memories that sometimes you wish would never surface, sometimes agonising. In fact, it hurts. I can only imagine what it must be like in the other person’s shoes, seeing someone you once held so dear with someone else. Acting differently. Realising the past is locked.

So my message is this: We all change, we’re all different all through our lives. Just remember who YOU are. Do not let yourself change so much you forget everything you are, everything you might have once been. Never forget all those fascinating, wonderfully different people who inhabited this earth at one stage or another. Remember all these people: all of them were you.