Different Place, Different Time, Different Person

Jennifer Conlee, co-news editor

I’ve noticed in the past few weeks that people are not always the way that they seem to be. 

Some of my friends from high school have done a complete turn around from how they used to be.  One in particular used to be all sweet and innocent, and now she is wilder and more uninhibited than she used to be. 

I’ve decided that it must be a person’s environment that makes them act the way that they do. Of course, this does not mean that they change entirely.  I believe that no matter where someone is, every person has some part of a personality that never changes. 

I’m going to use myself as an example.  I have four completely different personalities. At home, I am the “responsible” one, who also happens to be the tyrant.  Home is where I let all my anger and frustration out, because I don’t want my friends to see the monster side of me.  I yell and scream while I’m cooking, cleaning and staying out of trouble.

In high school, I was the sweet, quiet girl who did what she was supposed to do and never got in trouble.  My teachers loved me (most of the time), and I had special privileges. I am carrying that into my classes in college.

In church, I am the servant type, who loves to do good to others.  I lead at the junior high youth group, volunteer in the nursery, and attend every service that I can.  The people who know me there would never believe that I do half the things I do outside of church.  In the nursery, I go wherever I am asked to go and do what I am asked to do.

Then, there is the me that exists outside of the classroom, with my group of friends.  We are the group that enjoys hanging around outdoors at 2:30 A.M.  We like listening to the guys play their guitars and sing. 

We love piling in the back of a pickup truck and driving to Wal-Mart at midnight, where we enjoy playing dress-up and acting like lunatics.  We often leave when the manager looks like he is about to kick us out.

With this group, I can say things that I would never dream about saying in class, at home, and certainly not at church.  If any of my friends from this group were to describe me to a friend from church, there is no way that the church friend would believe the school friend. 

However, though I am wilder, I am still the “good” one.  I won’t do any thing that will get me in trouble.  I am the one that pulls everyone out of Wal-Mart before we can get kicked out.  I stay away from alcohol and drugs, and I don’t even smoke.

Are you seeing a central theme here?  No matter which group I am in, I am always trying to stay out of trouble.  I believe that everyone has a central theme like that.  If a person’s main personality is mean, then they will always be mean to a certain extent. If they are dull, they will always seem dull.

I see this with all the friends that I know from different places. They can be crazy in one place, calm in another.  Thus, it is a person’s surroundings that change that person.  This concept allows a person to discover who he or she really is, by experimenting with different types of their own personality.