A Short Reflection On Then and Now
Revisiting old writing and what it reveals
It’s fun to pull out old writing and reflect.
On the words, sure. But also on where I was and what I was wrestling with.
I wrote this essay half a year ago. Reading it again today, I realized: a lot’s changed. My mood, outlook, job, priorities, and environment — they’re all different. No matter which past piece of writing I re-read, comparing my “now” and “then” always reveals something useful. Something I can learn from.
I wrote that essay linked above during the teeth of the 2020 election season and near the peak of COVID. In it, I quoted Otto Von Bismarck, who said:
“Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is yet to come, and yet it’s over already.”
As I read it again today, not even a year after I published it, it struck me how different the world feels, and how quickly that kind of change can happen.
We’re in a new chapter. It feels a little less scary out there. A little more optimistic. We still have problems but, at least for me, they seem so much more manageable when compared to my concerns of six months ago.
I still believe, as I wrote in that essay, that, “Time will pass. And people can change.”
And today, with some fresh perspective, I’ll add this: It can all happen much faster than you expect.
And that — the sort of unburdening you encounter when the finish line is finally in sight — feels good.