today i will turn twenty years old. it feels weird to say that i'm leaving my teenage years- there's no turning back. in a lot of ways i still feel like a child, but for me it's a good thing. growing older doesn't mean growing bored, and i've decided long ago that i'll never want that. always look at the world with fresh eyes, i tell myself, and age won't mean a thing. because things like that keep you youthful.
i had a conversation with a close friend a few days ago. we were talking about whether people 'change'. can someone really change their personality? it doesn't seem likely, does it, considering that personality is defined as an 'enduring characteristic'. he told me that people can't change. that who you are is determined by genes and perhaps a bit of environment. but even environment, he said, doesn't matter after puberty- so thirteen or fourteen. i don't think so though. perhaps there are some people who once set, stay that way. but i believe that there are also people who can change, through pure self motivation.
this is admittedly a view that i hold onto from personal experience. you see when i was younger, i wasn't the most aware of other people and how they felt. i didn't know it at the time but i was mean- i didn't say anything rude or insulting upfront, but it was just little things in the way i acted. i'd insist on doing things my way. it would bother me if i wasn't right, even for the smallest thing. i thought of a conversation as being a debate and i always had to have my say.
looking back i put part of it on my naivety (which to a degree, i still have), but most of it on simple ignorance. as bad as it may sound though, and as much as i regret not having been more considerate and giving other people more trust, i am happy that at least i'm truly aware of it now. everyday i aspire to be a better person. i have many people in my life who i look up to, and for that i am grateful.
on a brighter note though, here are some images i photographed at the woodland park zoo last week. the boy in the images is henry, a singer/pianist. i've yet to catch him singing or even humming a tune but i'm determined!
the canopy above the aviary
eager children
resting in a sunlit patch
a man sitting by the orangutan exhibit
passerby
a meerkat. quite possibly the cutest animal ever.
pointing out a slumbering tiger
me and a jaguar
poison dart frogs
a swan amongst flamingos
child backlit with a tank of fish in the brown bear exhibit
i am 20
weiiiiiirdddd
ps. these are all photographed on my iphone 4
ps. these are all photographed on my iphone 4
