Do people my age self analyze their past and their future, while applying present circumstances, and ever feel completely satisfied?
Mr. Harry Brown
My answer is of course we do—constantly!
Personally, I find most things in my present and future connect to the past. Over time, I have experienced how these connections make themselves known, how as they unfold or envelope the present and reveal just who I am now.
I was only slightly aware of my self-worth at age eight, when I arrived at Astor, but I was quite aware of whom I was when I left! My youthful confusions gave way to education, my experiences secured my confidence, and my accomplishments validated my self-worth.
Keeping my emotions aside, I can connect each high and low stage to my past because I have always kept Astor as a touchstone in almost every moment of my best achievements and joy, as well as my failures and melancholies.
Where this leads to is that so many factors make for the personality of an individual. Family, educators, and associations add and subtract over a lifetime, and a positive self awareness coupled with a healthy emotional maturity can be an achievable enterprise. There is no particular formula which can determine a child’s future. However, experience tells me that most positive input, balanced with appropriate encouragement when failure prevails, will produce a complete person.
This is what I’ve learned and why I now feel as I do about most things. On a humorous level, to those who know me, it makes me quite predictable!