2.5

If you were software, what version of yourself would you be at this point?

Conventional wisdom says our basic personalities don't change a great deal after adolescence. How consistent is that with your experience of those you've known that long? I feel incapable of assessing how much my sisters and brother have changed over time; family of origin dynamics interfere with my objectivity. Yet they're the only people I've had regular contact with since we were all adolescents. So challenging the conventional wisdom about how much others change after adolescence leaves me with a limited sample.  

But, I do not feel at all like Pat 2.0, i.e. one version pre-adolescence and the same version ever since. My path to energy, main means of gathering information, method for making decisions, and preferred orientation to the world have not shifted enough for others to experience Pat 3.0; maybe not even version 2.8. But in each of those four important domains, especially my path to energy, I've learned to flex well enough to lay claim to Pat 2.5; my siblings may disagree. If so, I hope they weigh in.

My four nieces and my daughter make up the small universe of people I've had regular contact with since all were adolescents. If any of the five read this post, maybe I'll initiate a future conversation about which software version of each of them I currently experience. And all my long time post adolescent friends? That could be fun or disastrous depending on my presentation. If you try this with anyone, let me know how it goes. Tell them Pat 2.5 was asking.