A Change In Perspective
January 18, 2022
Penelope Trent

They say that as you get older and learn more about how life works, your views change and you see things differently. People who go through a ‘life-changing’ event will often say that it changed the way they look at things now, or they understand things better. Now I don’t profess to be old and wise, I am fully aware that I’m young, and still have a lot left to learn ahead of me. But this excites me because, in the few decades that I have been around on this planet, I have learned to see things differently.

Privacy is something that was always important to me. I always respected other people’s privacy, never pried, and expected to be treated the same in return. I very much felt a need to keep my personal life to myself, and never share it with anyone. When I look back on this, I can see how lonely and isolating it was. And while I’m still working hard on not letting my first instincts get the better of me, I now understand the importance of sharing and opening up to people.

Getty Images/DigitalVision/Kathrin Ziegler

I have always been the person who behaved appropriately, followed the rules, and did the right thing. As a child, to act differently was seen to be naughty, and as I grew into an adult, I began to see things differently. Because as an adult, you’re not ‘naughty’, no one will shout at you. While it might be frowned upon if you’re late to a work meeting, life happens, and everyone understands that because we’re all human. I began to learn that while yes the rules are there for a reason, they’re not so rigid, sometimes they are flexible.

The future was something I always looked forward to. I’d plan what I wanted to do in 5, 10, even 30 years’ time. I was very work-focussed, I had a plan for my career and how I would progress from stage to stage. Sure, I had desires and dreams, but those would come later. In my early 20s, we had a family tragedy and everything changed. Suddenly life seemed short, and my priorities changed. I began pursuing some of my dreams and ignoring the previously planned timeline. I started seizing more opportunities and enjoying life more.

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