Dealing with Old Friends

jgpp

So recently I've been making contact with some old friends of mine. And I find something happening in my mind.

It's as if this old personality of self has reappeared. This self has it's own perspective, own way of speaking, and own way of relating to particular people. It's as if my whole reality has changed at the flick of a switch. It is nice however. After so long of being without social relationships and close contact with friends I find it nice to relate to particular people who speak my "language" so to speak. I find old vocabulary and particular phrases which only these friends would understand reappearing. I even find the way my mind processes information as different. It's such a trip.

So it's all illusion, yet it's fun sorta. Yet this self is an impostor. Today I'm this guy, tomorrow I'm that guy.


Any thoughts, advice, similar experiences?

Vincenzi

maybe you are simply becoming more social... nothing wrong with that

aura

Yesterday, today, tomorrow, you are still you irregardless of growth and change.

People connect to one another with ties, and those ties over time develop and manifest distinctive patterns.
Such patterns provide communality and communication, a sense of security, solidarity, continuity, and support.

With a dynamic, growing, thriving relationship, those patterns move and change and grow and expand like living things over time.

With a relationship that has been "put on hold" through time and distance, those patterns remain as you once left them.
It is quite possible to resume those patterns just as you once left them, and those familiar patterns can still provide communality and communication, a sense of security, continuity, and support, (albeit somewhat different from your other current patterns in life.)

But be aware that it is also possible for people to bind one another with those particular patterns...
like inescapable chains!

jgpp

@aura

Insightful post, thanks.

poptart

I think this is very interesting and I do recognise this behaviour in myself. We have different masks we wear in different settings. For example I noticed when younger that while with older relatives I reverted to a more childlike submissive persona than when with friends. It's as if the "me" in their company was a conditioned set of responses both parties had become comfortable with. But then isn't that all "me" is? There is no objective "me" at all.

zombiegirl

i know exactly what you mean. i have different groups of friends that i interact with in different ways. i don't think that this means that i am ever being fake, i just think that people are very complex and have many different facets of personality. different people resonate with you in different ways. for example, i have a friend who is artistically inclined and when we get together, we generally become very inspired and spend most of our time doodling/painting/discussing artistic endeavors. we use each other as a sound board and bounce around different concepts and it works quite well. we're both rather comical together and in the past we have turned this comical/artistic energy into several online comics. while i tend to do more serious stuff on my own, when i am with my friend, everything ends up a comedy. obviously, i have friends who are not artistically inclined as well and i most definitely don't spend my time sketching or talking about color concepts when i hang out with them, lol. i think it's quite normal.

Fenix

we're both rather comical together and in the past we have turned this comical/artistic energy into several online comics.

@zombiegirl I can has link?