The desire to change lives with the fear of changing.

Both deal with the assumption that a person can change herself.

However, there are enough reasons to believe that one cannot change oneself.

It’s possible to change habits, behaviors, and thinking patterns. It’s part of the evolution one experiences looking back. Things that were easy became complicated. Some of the things that have been complicated became easier.

What doesn’t change is the answer people give themselves to “Who am I?”

It remains a simple “I.”

However, to communicate and describe it to others, that “I” often becomes a list of identifying elements like a job, values, nationality, social status, etc. Descriptions that may correlate with one’s temporary and changing idea of self. But in essence, they are concepts one uses so that others can develop an idea of who we are. It happens by identifying us with others, that is by developing stereotypes.

There are no words that really allow us to describe our experience of “I” to others in ways perceptible to them.