are we the same people we've always been?

Finally finished the grueling book at work the other day! It's wasn't necessarily a bad book, I just didn't enjoy it as much as others and started it looking forward to a german writing style and was given a Swiss. Homo Faber, I"m finally done! Only problem arises considering I've read every book in my apartment and don't when I'll get home again to stock up on my list. School library solves the problem, woohoo!!! Just started Capote's Music for Chameleons yesterday ... was hooked from the preface! Too bad it looks like I'll get through this one in record time ... unlike the 3 months of work breaks to get through a book I didn't thoroughly enjoy. Just can't not finish a book ... have to know how it ends so I know not to read it again if it was completely repulsing.

One thing I've been wondering for a few days ... Are we the same people we were in High School? Everyone talks about maturing and growing into a new person when they start the journey into adulthood ... but how much do we actually change? Even as adults, we still have the cliques: the people with money, the drama folks, the artist/musicians, the stoners, the lazy crowd, the overachievers, and even those of us who still puddle jump between them. We just start to second-guess ourselves. Is an abundance of independence that supposedly builds character only holding us back? I've realized recently that I'm reluctant to rely on others anymore. Do we rely too much on ourselves to feel content and with self-worth. As far as building character ... I've had enough character for quite some time. Besides the fact that I've learned a buttload of random facts and know how to accomplish things through past trial and error ... I"m not one step away from the person I've always been. I'm still the quirky wierd one who for some strange reason is found to be interesting randomly. Perhaps the only major change is that I think with a bit more cynicism than in the past. It's like I'm inwardly cynical of ideas and thoughts that I've always supported and held onto as well as being more self-critical. We learn from our past failures, but are we learning the right things from them? Or are we just observing, doomed to make only different mistakes by assuming the failure was based on error. It's like we're building a tower, stone by stone, but give up after the height becomes stagnant no matter how many more stones are laid. We don't bother to look around and see that our neighbor, too, is building a tower, only using the stones that we, ourselves, have laid as our own.