On becoming a new being.

I'd not like living my life in the town in which I grew up. Because it would be too limiting. Too many people would have me pegged. For what I was as a youth and a young man. They might not recognize that I've changed. It's like living so close and too long with someone so that one doesn't really notice the change. Because it has been change occurring a little at a time. Day by day by day. And that throws the onlookers off. I know people that have lived in virtually the same place all their lives. And I also know that they have changed a lot. But many of their acquaintances don't know it. They don't see it. Don't accept it. They are not seeing the real being. The one that has evolved. And become something else. In a way, that's sad. Because it often forces some to be two beings. Two personalities. Two quite different people. And maybe it's confusing. I know some of 'em don't really know who they are. They live as the local commununity expects them to live. Rather than as their true selves. One of the nicest things to ever happen to me was leaving my hometown. Getting away from the people that knew me when I was growing up. Including my mother. And my brother. And my sister. And my friends. I moved into new environments. With an entirely different set of acquaintances and friends. I was allowed to make a new start. To create a new and more accurate image. Almost a new being, in a sense. --Jim Broede