You’re Not the Same Person You Were Yesterday

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“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

We often think of our personal story as fixed—written in permanent ink. But the truth is, every time we reflect on the past, we revise it. Not by changing the facts, but by changing the lens. We’re never telling the same story twice, because we’re never the same person telling it.

Our experiences reshape us. So do the people who enter our lives, the books that challenge us, and the questions we dare to ask ourselves. In this way, identity becomes a living narrative—fluid, evolving, and defined as much by its meaning as by its memories.

I’ve seen this firsthand. Over the years, I’ve shared my life story in front of groups—often drawing from the same core events, yet telling it differently each time. What I chose to highlight, the tone I used, and the lessons I drew, all of it shifted with time, growth, and insight. As our perspective deepens, so does the story we tell.

That line from Alice in Wonderland may sound whimsical, but it speaks to something real. We can’t go back to who we were, because we carry today’s awareness with us. Reflection doesn’t return us to the past—it propels us forward.

You’ll find this same idea in my poem People Come Into Your Life for a Reason. Often, we only understand someone’s role in our life years later, through the lens of experience. Retelling our story allows us to uncover new meaning in familiar moments.

And that’s the quiet miracle of personal growth: we’re not being erased—we’re being rewritten.

The people we meet along the way shape us in ways we often don’t notice at the time. Their influence becomes clearer only in hindsight, like constellations taking shape after night falls.