Have you ever felt like there was a past you?

I don’t know if there was a past me, but I often get that deja vu feeling. I don’t know where it comes from.

When I think back to the younger versions of myself, they seem both like someone else and like I am now, just less experienced in the ways of the world.

There’s a wonderful 1976 TV play called “The Hemingway Play” in which four Hemingways —the wounded boy back from WWI, the 1920’s Paris writer, the middle aged safari hunter and “Papa” Hemingway—meet each other in a bar and, as I recall, drink, converse, argue. I was greatly affected by it at the time.

“Does anyone else feel this way? Am I not totally alone?”

Nupe… just you. Better get some professional help before the white coats come to take you away.

I’m a million different people from one day to the next.

Somewhat. The stages of my life seem like different lifetimes, in a way. The younger me was a mess, so I have no interaction with those aspects of my personality that I worked so hard to overcome.

Having your younger self yell at you seems as though you are trying to repress something. Either things happened then that you need to address, or the naïve idealist you once were isn’t happy with the direction you have chosen in this current stage of life. I agree that counseling is a good idea.

@bookish1: bittersweet…

Are you feeling repressed now compared to when you were younger? Perhaps it’s your inner child trying to tell you not to hold back but to go after the things you told yourself you would achieve back then?

Personally, I was a very outgoing child but from about the age of seven my life changed dramatically and I felt very constrained by my circumstances. So I did feel I was a very different person until I was in my late teens and i felt secure enough for my true personality to emerge again.

@Bellatrix I don’t feel repressed. When my younger self starts yelling at me, it’s because she thinks I’m becoming the very thing I hated when I was her age. She thinks I’m becoming a girly girl in that I’m trying new things. Not things I really like, but it’s a learning experience I suppose. She wants nothing to do with it, though.
I have never been outgoing, but I’m getting past my shyness gradually.

There is usually only one past me, but I tend to ‘meet’ others which come from my very young years.

I think this is a sort of manifestation of your inner dialogue but it’s presenting as your younger self. Sounds as though you are a little conflicted and trying to find out ‘who you are’ and ‘what’s right for you’. That’s perfectly normal at your age. If you want to explore being more feminine that’s fine. If you are doing it for other people, perhaps listen to that inner voice that suggests you aren’t being true to your own desires.

I feel I have pretty much the same values as I’ve always had. My reactions to everything have kind of calmed down and the rough edges have been smoothed with time and experience. I’m not as judgmental as I once was. I don’t argue with people who don’t agree with me or with whom I disagree. The only way I can change the world is to be the kind of person I wish everyone could be when it comes to being tolerant and understanding of others. Sounds like a grown up goody-goody. Thank god I can laugh at myself

always. I feel like she’s hiding in me somewhere, but I wouldn’t ever want to be her again. But I sometimes compare myself with my past self, and it’s a comfort to know that I’ve moved forward. (:

This is something I was thinking about only yesterday. I was listening to the song “Conversations With My 13-Year-Old Self”, by Pink.

I think the past me is like a different person to the current me. I still have the same characteristics – I still have a crazy sense of humour, I still hate the same foods, I still like the same music and I still have the same dress sense. But something about me has changed. It’s beyond my explanation, really. It’s like I’m more aware and alert somehow. I mean, let’s face it, my biggest problem when I was twelve years old was falling out with a friend or having an ugly haircut. Since then, I’ve had heartache – from friends, loves, and deaths of loved ones. I think who I’ve had feelings for and who I’ve become friends with has somehow changed me. I’m pretty sure I could go back in time and have a conversation with my past self and see lots of differences.