While visiting with my brother recently, we got into a pretty deep conversation on a lot of old family stuff, and he gave me some advice that kind of blew my mind.  It has also been popping up recently in some of the motivational/self help social media channels I follow.  My brother first asked me if I met someone just like me, would I be friends with that person?  When I answered yes, he asked me why I was still defending my decision not to use my degree, when that was over a decade ago, and I have clearly made a pretty sweet life for myself since then.  The degree part was just the most relevant reference to the conversation we were having, but his point works on so many other topics, so many other silly points I feel defensive on.  It was put like this in the one video I have seen … trying to hurt me, by bringing up my past, is like trying to rob my old home … I don’t live there anymore!

I almost feel silly for not seeing this earlier, especially with how much time I have spent having non existent arguments in my head with people who aren’t even that upset with me.  How much energy I have wasted defending the choices I have made, or odd opinions I had years ago.  Or how much I let it bother me when someone wants to bring it back up.  I know full well that I am not the same man I was even six months ago, let alone six or more years ago. 

So I am writing this now to allow myself to let go of the person I was.  To recognize that I made the best decisions I could at the time with the knowledge and understanding I had back then.  And while some of them may have been mistakes, I’ll never know how it would have turned out if I had made a different decision.  And I’m still pretty pumped with the life I am making for myself.  As the lyrical poet Kanye West once said … Cause I’m dope, and I do dope shit!