Steven John The author and his daughter.
- I'm in my 30s, and over the past 10 years, I've completely changed my mind about several things.
- My views on friendship, family, and confronting conflict have evolved since I was in my 20s.
- Changing your mind about something doesn't mean that you were wrong - it means your circumstances have changed.
The other day, my 5-year-old son told my wife and me that he knows everything.
Usually we allow such declarations to pass without much mention, as arguing with a 5-year-old isn't fair given the decades of life experience the parent has in their corner. But as he had been rather testy for much of the past hour, I demurred and asked him a question I figured he'd flub.
"OK, who's the vice president?"
After a long pause, his face lit up and he replied: "Pence!"
I have no idea where he picked up that bit of trivia, but needless to say he won that round.
What I do know is that as a young man, I too felt like I knew it all. As a teenager, I was on top of the world, filled with knowledge about all things political, literary, countercultural, you name it. In college, I had something to say about every topic, regardless of how much evidence I had to support it.
The older I've gotten and the more I've actually learned about life, the more I've come to realize that none of us really know more than the tip of the iceberg. And that's OK, as long as we accept it and are willing to keep learning and listening. I've also learned that it's perfectly alright to change your mind about things.
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Changing your mind about a given topic doesn't necessarily mean you were wrong before. Rather, it means that your circumstances have changed. Perhaps you have more knowledge about an issue now and you see the matter differently. Maybe life events have opened your eyes regarding a subject you had little thought of before. Or maybe one day you realize that what you once valued is no longer of much importance to you, or that what you once took for granted is now precious.
Here are five things I would never have believed in my 20s but that I fully accept in my 30s.