Experiencing tunnel vision,

Just outta curiousity: How many times have you ever wished you could just be someone else?

I'm not saying that I do; it's just that it's something i've often thought about - being someone else. Well, not someone else per se, but just... a change of heart? a change of mind? a change of character? You get what I mean, don't you...?

One wonders if there's such a thing as an inner person. Cliched, yes (somehow I inevitably drift towards dissecting cliches, don't I?)... But stop to give it some thought. Could there really be some innate personality which defines the way you are and the way you behave? What philosophers have debated for ages over - the existence of the 'soul', or the 'form'.

Or are we the creations of our upbringings, the products of the mould of society around us? If that were the case, then we might arguably be able to change ourselves if we're determined enough, correct?

I haven't really met any personalities from the 2nd category; as such, i'm somewhat pressed to agree with the 1st logic - that there's something inside each of us which predetermines who we are. From personal experience too, I can't help but agree with it - there've been many points of time along the road whereby I wish I could swap the (general) nice-guy persona for one of... well, I wouldn't mind being my cousin. Heh.

I'm not saying anything, mind you.

Question: The one and only response i've ever gotten when telling people how I wish I could be somebody else (discounting silence, of course) goes something along the lines of "But you're great just the way you are!". The thing is... So? I thought about it for abit, and my frank conclusion is that people who tell me that i'm 'great just the way I am' either

1.) say it's so because it's the only socially-correct thing to say at that point of time.

2.) say it's so because they cannot comprehend the possibility of the person in front of them behaving in any alternate manner, which leads on to...

3.) say it's so because they subconsciously desire to reinforce the stability of their lives: no-one really wants friends who change like the weather.

You might say that i'm just being overly negative. Well... Once again, think it through carefully - what i'm saying is that people act out of self-interest, and therefore seldom do we find a truly selfless/altruistic action in life. For instance, if you were to quote the example of social volunteers/helpers as a counterargument - while that isn't materially rewarding, it's certainly intrinsically rewarding to the person who performs it, however that may be.

I'm off tangent. So basically, my point is that people inevitably do things with their own self-interests (perhaps unconsciously) at heart, and therefore I ought not to listen to people who tell me to stay the same, because thats just a load of bullshit.

I've given you a justification as to why this problem ought not to be tackled from the perspectives of others, but from one's own viewpoint. Can you change your entire system of being if you so chose to? That's the question from me. I haven't seen examples otherwise, and so I patiently await enlightenment upon my doorstep.


Bless my soul. Love me so.