Why I’m not the same person I was in 2019

Matthew Arnold Stern
2 min readSep 1, 2024
How I looked in 2019 (left) versus now (right)

This is not a political post, but it’s inspired by one. I was commenting on Dana Bash’s interview of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on CNN, and someone replied about how her stances on issues from 2019. He wrote, “Her answer there was something like ‘my values haven’t changed’ ok cool… sp everything you said in 2019 is still in play. That means she is either not genuine or simply trying to be everything to everyone… that isn’t wise (or viable).”

The answer to this is the Vice President has the right to change her mind. You can still hold fast to your principles, but your approaches to fulfilling them can change based on new information or changing circumstances. She is not the same person she was in 2019.

And neither am I.

I think back to who I was on this date five years ago. I was commuting daily to work in a cubicle. My first novel that was published by a small press, Amiga, was months away from being released. I weighed 262 pounds and thought a fast-food burrito and fries made a perfect lunch.

Today, I work from home. I can send our granddaughter off to school and greet her when she comes home. I have two novels published by that small press, with a third in submission. I now weight 185 pounds and won’t eat a meal without vegetables.

--

--

Matthew Arnold Stern
Matthew Arnold Stern

Written by Matthew Arnold Stern

A novelist and award-winning public speaker and technical writer. My novels Amiga and The Remainders are available now.