[youOme]

To have absolutely no clue who I am....in the process of recovering? Is it normal to adapt and change every time I move to a different area to fit in with the local folk?

[VoNPD]

OOOHHHH YEEAAAAHHHH.

I didn't know who I was until my 40's. Right now you are in an "experience gathering" mode. Enjoy it! Know that you are YOU and you have endless possibilities. It's too soon for you to know the end of the story when you are only on chapter 2.

Hope this helps!
(((((((((gentle hugs))))))))

Totally normal. I didn't begin to find my identity until I was about 22-- I'm 26 now and still discovering.

Most people begin to find their identities a bit earlier, I guess... at least that's what Erikson says, lol. Anyway, I was so consumed with the beginnings of my depression and panic disorder at that time, that I never had a chance to figure out who I am. The illnesses determined that for me. It wasn't until I got better control over all of that, that I could start finding out who I was, what I wanted to do, etc. And like I said, I'm still exploring and discovering all the time.

[Rapunzel]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
"It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him."

— Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994)


</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

I think it takes longer and longer as society progresses for most people to figure out who they are and to assume adult roles. It makes sense since we have so many more options to explore than there ever were before. In recent history there weren't teenagers because when you started to look like an adult you went to work just like your parents did. We have more time now, and childhood is longer. And they are saying that the brain doesn't actually mature until around the mid-twenties. I wonder if brains used to mature earlier in the times when people had to assume adult roles at 13 or 14.

[Perna]

I don't know about changing each time you move? What do you mean about move? Are you moving every month to "escape" or something or are we talking about your parents moved when you were 5 and 16 and then you moved out when you finished school or something?

You haven't been out "in the world" very much yet so it's hard to tell what you like, dislike, what others are doing out there, etc. Been mostly "observing" up to now. Too, we aren't any one thing; at 57 I'm coming to see that it is a myth to think we figure everything out and then go out and happily live life, etc. Most people just "happen" into their jobs or pick something as close to what they like as they can. The realities of life have a way of stepping in and messing up the most well-planned ideas/plans we have in our head. We don't pass a certain test, there are no jobs in our field, we get married or have a child or divorce, we travel and find something else we like better, etc. Me and my life didn't begin to make sense for me until a couple years ago when I retired!

[youOme]

Perna...I've moved alot in my life time and especially when I was younger I molded myself to fit the type of society I moved with in. Like when I was younger we moved from Indiana to North Carolina and there I made my most drastic change to fit the tourist type atmosphere. I also noticed that when I moved from Arizona to West Virginia I went from a yankee to country. Now I sound, talk, and feel country. I say "ya'll" more now then ever before....stuff like that.

[Rapunzel]

My family moved a lot too (military service). I pick up accents and talk like whoever I am talking to at the moment, automatically. We lived in California when I was little most of the time, went to Spain for a couple of years, Texas when I was in high school, etc. I can do the Southern drawl, or whichever accent fits. There was a time (when I was probably trying not to drawl) that someone told me my accent sounded a little British (maybe picked up from someone in Spain). Once I took a dialect test that I found online, and it said that I was 60% Southern (only lived in Texas for 5 years). I think that adapting to where you are is normal.

[AlteredState01]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Most people just "happen" into their jobs or pick something as close to what they like as they can. The realities of life have a way of stepping in and messing up the most well-planned ideas/plans we have in our head. We don't pass a certain test, there are no jobs in our field, we get married or have a child or divorce, we travel and find something else we like better, etc.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

Quite a poignant statement there, Perna!

[AlteredState01]

I think it's normal.