Change is strange

There are many things that have changed between when I was a kid and the present day. Many of the things that have changed are the likes and dislikes I have where food is concerned. For example, I detested tuna and Marmite when I was a child, yet I like these things now. Sure, there is a simple explanation for this (that the palate of a person changes over time), but I think that for other things it is not that simple.

Music taste

When I was younger I was obsessed with Rock, Heavy Metal, and various alternative or underground music genres. I wouldn't listen to anything else, and could not understand why people listened to mainstream Pop and R'N'B. Now I find myself listening not only to the alternative music that I grew up with, but also to pretty much everything I hear in the charts. It's as though my music taste has eased over time, and I don't feel the need to defend the music I listen to, as though it were an extension of my own identity. Music for me is something to lose myself in, to train to, to meditate to, to get nostalgic about, and to simply enjoy. I've also noticed that I tend to listen to certain genres of music based on my mood. When I was a teenager I would wait around at bus stops at 6am listening to Death Metal whilst I waited for the bus to school, and now I can only listen to metal music when I am in the right state of mind (or for training, it's brilliant every time if you're at the gym). I've also noticed that I am generally more open to new music and/or things in general that I am not familiar with now, as opposed to the narrow-minded mindset I had when I was younger.

Heavy Metal (source: http://metalripperworlds.blogspot.com)

Learning

I was intolerable as a student at school. I feel somewhat sympathetic to some of my teachers (though not all, as some of them should never have become teachers), because of my poor attitude and refusal to learn when I was a teenager. It wasn't like this with all of my subjects at school, but certain ones that I didn't enjoy I would distract other people, mess around or zone out completely. In hindsight I regret this, but I was a completely different person back then. It's interesting because I find my approach and attitude toward education and learning in general has altogether transformed. I think this is because I appreciate knowledge more now, and see all learning as an opportunity to grow and enhance myself. I do however think that the way in which we learn things is key in securing our individual attention spans, as well as, making sure that we are fully engaged and invested in what we are learning. For instance, I did not enjoy learning languages at school. I found it boring and I felt as though the teachers did not try hard enough to motivate us. Because of this, I failed these subjects at school, yet now, later in life I find myself revisiting the same languages and learning them in my own way. I love every minute of it now, and can't help but feel as though the medium with which I am learning languages in is the integral factor behind why this is the case.

Appreciating silence

I remember when I was kid I was much more outgoing, loud and just generally unable to sit still for long periods of time. I remember times when I had nothing to do but stare at a wall whilst waiting for something, and like all children (maybe?) I would become bored pretty quickly. Even as I got older this was still somewhat true. I recall going on fishing trips with my father as a teenager, and disliking the experience, simply because it was too quiet and I felt like there was nothing to do. Truthfully, I had not yet begun to simply sit and contemplate life, my thoughts or indeed anything else. This practice of sitting in silence and simply thinking (or indeed not thinking at all and merely appreciating the silence) was something unbeknownst to me. I find it somewhat strange that this has now completely changed. I can now sit for hours at a time in quiet contemplation. In fact, I enjoy this from time to time. It's nice to be able to escape everything and reside within one's thoughts or silence itself.

Yet some things never change

WWF ATTITUDE ERA (source: WWE.com)

I still loathe English mustard, celery and liver. Yet there are plenty of things I loved as a kid that I still do now. For instance, just like how my love of alternative music has carried into adulthood, so too has my passion for professional wrestling. If anything, I love it more now that I understand more about how the industry works. I remember distinctly when I was kid that WWF (now WWE) & WCW experienced a surge in popularity around 1999-2001 in the UK. You could find wrestling figures, DVD, VHS cassettes, and accessories everywhere. I had actually discovered wrestling by accident (at perhaps 4 or 5 years of age) on TV one night, and was reintroduced to it by a childhood friend between the ages of 7-9 years. I instantly was hooked, yet my school friends pretty quickly found out that professional wrestling was staged/performed as opposed to other forms of sports entertainment. They slated it, stating that it was ''fake'', yet I continued to love it, and actually discovered it was not fake. The injuries are very real, and much of what you see actually hurts a lot. Everyone has differing opinions on the professional wrestling business, for me I consider it to be an amalgamation of drama, theater and performance. Every wrestling match is telling a story. The better the wrestlers are, the better the story will be, and you will likely become more invested in the story because of this. When I was a kid, I was enamored by the personalities/gimmicks and of course, the fighting. But now, my love for wrestling has grown significantly because I understand it much more as an adult.

Change is strange, but change is good.

- Christian Reeve

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