Feeding My Ignorance

Now, another facet of the mystery of memories comes from what was the kids story on Sunday Morning.  Here the children were asked to imagine where they might be, or wanted to be, in ten years time.  A variation on "what do you want to be when you grow up".

...

For this one, I couldn't help but think how different my life has been from what I might have expected.  Things that seemed to be 'important' have gone from my life - opportunities that I would never have considered have arisen - I have had life experiences that came as real surprises given what I thought were my skills and expertise.  Equally, some of my "ambitions" were, perhaps partially, fulfilled whilst others disappeared almost entirely from my life course.

I'm pretty sure that, for most things, there has never been a time when I could have seen ten years into the future and not only predicted where I was going to be but also where I had "passed through" in the intervening time.

The answers were interesting - in that they were heavily influenced by both where the question was asked and what the other answers were.  The first demonstrated well just how hard it is to think "outside the box" in terms of current context.  When I finished university having completed a business studies degree - how easy would it have been for me to predict that ten years later I would be working on as a test manager on an air traffic control system in Vienna?  It would simply have not crossed my mind - we are creatures of limited imagination in many ways - and it has been shown that we only see what our "outlook" has accustomed us to expect.

The second type of answer you can expect - especially from younger children - but also from many adults - our visions of the future are shaped very much by those of our close contacts and friends.  You have an expectation that everyone is going to follow a similar life path - despite the fact that you KNOW that everyone has got to where they are now by quite different paths.  Why on earth should they continue to march instep with you along the "straight and narrow" for the rest of their lives.

Of those people that I was in close contact with at the time I finished university - only a few are still "in my life" - a slightly larger number are still part of my wider social circles - but many have disappeared off into the distance - for one reason or another.  What is more - I am now surrounded by a new set of people - as I write this I think that in my group at work there is no one who knew me when I returned from Vienna and only a couple who have known me for more than a few years.

Change happens - and is unpredictable - we can certainly not be sure about what is going to happen to us over the next ten years.  It is - I guess - interesting to look back and compare where we are to where we once thought we might be!!