this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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me_irl
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So maybe you loved your idea of the person more than you loved the actual person?
This is always the case. Other beings are fundamentally unknowable. There is always a translation layer between you and them. If you met yourself without knowing it was yourself, or met what you would call 'yourself' at a sufficient removal in time, you would still have that layer of separation. Some people are just more keenly aware of it, and some become aware of it in certain situations.
I think about this a lot. People change, obviously, but often it also has to do with how you remember the person and how that changes as well.