I was looking back through the archives and it put me in a reflective mood. So fair warning, this post may or may not be a little long.
I'll have been on USMB three years this September. When I first joined, I was 17 and the youngest member by quite a bit to say the least. I'm pretty sure I still am.
While many people my age really didn't care about politics whatsoever, I was on here at times posting my thoughts on the political happening of the day. Looking back through the archives has given me an opportunity that not many my age have, being able to see how much I have changed here in that time.
I was a lot more confrontational and looking back I can see I made the mistake of taking things personally. Reading my posts on some subjects, looking back I come off as very naive and headstrong. That's not to say my heart wasn't in the right place, because it was. However, with more knowledge and more experience comes some pretty strong realizations about not only myself but my beliefs.
I see some of my posts (about then Candidate Obama, Israel/Palestine and my idea about how Israel can handle it, and religion) come to mind. As do some of my posts about the Death Penalty and guns.
Another example is I look back and see my involvement in the religion/ethics threads and at times I want to grab my younger self when reading and go "Shut the hell up." It probably doesn't help that I was going through a phrase of sorts where I was unsure about where I stood on religion.
I can happily say though that I have long come to terms with all of that and realized that a black and white view of the world is the wrong way to go. Nobody and no institution is perfect, however, those imperfections certainly don't determine the entire character of either the individual or institution.
Does that mean I'm recanting everything I said before this post? Not at all. On some issues, I was dead wrong. On others, I feel I'm still right. On some issues, I feel I was right but I went the wrong way of expressing those views. It helps that with more experience and time, I like to think I have become better at expressing my views and trying to be more mature about it.
Do I regret a fair amount of my former posts? I do in the sense that I wish I was never that naive in some cases. However, I rather post here instead of some Liberal echo chamber where I would never be challenged on anything I say. If I were to do that, I feel I would limit myself as to how much I can learn. I would also probably become intellectually lazy.
So I'm making this post as a thank you to those posters, both still here and no longer on USMB who put up with me as how I was when I first got here and still teach me things today.
I want to give special thanks to Allie, Annie, Article, Care, CG, Crimson, Del, Dis, Divecon, Diuretic, EZ, Elvis, Foxfyre, Gunny, Hjmick, Jillian, Jon, Luissa, Mani, Missourian, Navy, Paulie, Pilgrim, Radio, Ravi, Si Modo, Shogun, Toro, Uscitizen, Valerie, Zoom, and many others who I haven't named. I may not have always agreed with all of you on every issue (and some of you rarely), but you have certainly helped me grow as a person.
That being said, what I hope for is that three years from now when I look back at my posts from around today, I don't have to go "What a moron" too much. If I can accomplish that much, I'll be happy.
‪david bowie - changes‬‏ - YouTube
