Up: [[Life]] Created: 2015-09-19 > [!Orbit] Michelle Richmond in *Golden State* > We tend to see life as a continuum, Julie, but really, it’s a series of phases, generating a series of different selves. You leave one life behind and start another. And each time, a different version of yourself emerges. (p. 47) I love this idea. It feels like a core idea that is worth exploring in my own writing. I believe that a different version of my self, maybe even a mostly different self, is emerging now. And high time too. My last self lasted thirty years, too long in my opinion. I needed to retire when I did, before I did. What causes people to change themselves? Not just the trappings of their lives, the easy stuff like relationships, where they live, even their jobs. What causes people to change their values, beliefs, who they are at the core? Is it really that uncommon for those changes to take place, or does it happen only at [[The In-Between Times]], the turning point of different phase of life, such as the well-worn midlife crisis? What would be different if psychologists were wrong about everything we’ve ever thought we understood about developmental stages?