How much do I give of myself before I am no more?

There is an old thought experiment called “The Ship of Theseus” in which they ask, “If a ship has all its original pieces removed and replaced with new parts during a prolonged stretch of time, is it the same ship at the end? Or is it a different ship entirely?” 

Time is change, regardless of whether we move along with it or we stay put in the same positions that we started at. We grow older with each passing moment, the hair on our heads growing inch by inch with each passing day. The earth spins round and round, declaring cycles of things that begin and end before we even have a chance to notice. In this endless cycle, however, with all the changes that need to come as a product of said passing of time, the question remains “Are we the same person after who we were at the beginning of our process, even with all the growth that we go through, or do we become different people because of it?”

First, It should be said that being able to accept growth and change is something we as humans should strive for. What we are talking about today is not to remain stagnant in our ways of life, but rather remain true to ourselves or accept new realities. Change is inevitable, but our reactions to that change will always need to be different, and not all change is good.

For example; a man just lost his wife and daughter in a car crash. It wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t even nearby when it happened. It was just bad weather and fate that brought a swift and sudden end to the lives of the two people he loved the most. Yet pain, sorrow, and suffering are inevitable, in a way, making it impossible to ever go back to the previous version of who that person was. After a while, the person has a choice to make; try to stand back up and keep walking or allow a negative change in his life and drown in his pain. This is all a fictional setting, of course, pain like that is not easily left behind or forgotten. Still, it is our decision that eventually will help us stand back up to try and recover who we were or become a worse version of ourselves. 

Now the same image can be said in reverse; maybe the person wasn’t doing so well already, and maybe upon the deaths of his loved ones he carries some sort of regret that will forever weigh on his heart. Now the roles are reversed: will he remain as he was, sad and broken? Or will he try to build himself anew, taking in strength in the pursuit of bettering himself for whatever else may come along the way?

Change is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept everything that change brings with it, especially if it means losing who we are along the way. Or perhaps you are still trying to find yourself, and that’s good too. Just be careful with those things and people who would harm that version of you that you wish to find. In the end, all that we have is ourselves; our beliefs, our experiences, our thoughts, our victories, and our regrets. The body might fade, but the essence of who we were remains forever engraved in the fabric of universal time. Even if no one remembers your name, you were here, you caused change, however small you’d think your life may be. 

So to answer the question, does the ship that was, after all its pieces are replaced,  still is the same ship at its end? No. Because the soul grows every day, and who we were, in the beginning, is a different person than who we were yesterday. However, what we allow to change should always be for the betterment our ourselves, our knowledge, and our life experiences. Never allowing dull wood to replace a solid plank. Never allowing what will sink us to the depths.