There’s a famous quote that goes, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” While I never think about this quote, I’ve recently found myself wondering whether I am finding or creating myself.
A few days ago, I asked a friend to picture themselves in a room with all their past selves. The 17-year-old version of them, the 14-year-old one, or a version of them of any other age. The point was to see how different these versions would be from one another and whether they’d get along.
Perhaps they would. Perhaps not. And if that’s the case, why would that be?
I like to think that the past versions of myself would have a love-hate relationship with each other. The 20-year-old version would probably admire the 10-year-old’s Disney-filled life but dread the years of boarding school ahead of them.
The 14 and 17-year-olds would probably share and relish in their zest for life and big dreams. Interestingly, I don’t remember how other versions of myself would be. Age 9 is a blur, and 15, too.
But I imagine some past versions would share more similarities, and others would be worlds apart.
Do we create or discover ourselves?
Isn’t it funny how similar yet so different we can be from ourselves? We’re still the same person, but are we really? And if not, how does that happen? Do we create different versions of ourselves or discover them?
The last days, weeks, months, and years have been interesting. I’ve found myself in places I wouldn’t ever have imagined. I’ve seen myself evolve through relationships, aspirations, and everything else.
Most recently, I started being able to say I’m a content creator without cringing. Yay. But even in this regard, what’s changed? How am I more of a content creator today than two months ago? I shared videos with the same intent, but I can feel and see a new level of maturity in how I now create content.
Have weeks of consistency and practice molded a content creator, or have I discovered and tapped into something already there?
Have I been in a state of discovery or creation? Are we purposely creating our lives or do unfulfilled plans, answered prayers, and those ignored lead us to discover the life we were meant for? Is it all by design or default?
Is there room for both?
I like to think that there might be: that maybe we create and discover ourselves simultaneously. That somehow, the two are so intertwined and can’t be separated.
The scenario in my head looks like this: we create and then discover, and then maybe we’re met with a choice, and each decision creates something new, which births a discovery. Or perhaps first, we discover, and then, based on our choices, we create, and the pattern repeats.
And maybe because of this pattern, some parts of ourselves remain unchanged. I was a dreamer at 12, and I’m still a dreamer. We may not see the world through the same lenses, but we still speak the same language.
We can choose to believe that we discover ourselves and thus accept that maybe the script has already been written, or we can take the challenge of creation. Deciding who we’re going to be. Placing our bets on something and hoping that we’ve chosen correctly and, if we haven’t, that maybe, we can still find our way back.
What do you think?
This was too long to write in my journal. So, I thought it’d be best here. What do you think? Have you discovered or created the different “versions” or stages of your life?
And if all these versions of you sat in one room, would you all be friends?
