Amazing. Thanks for sharing this.

Interesting questions but this is very hard to do. When I look at me I see variations of the same old things. My hobbies, interests, and music tastes change little. This is me on the personal level.
When I look at me and my beliefs and opinions over time I can look back and see major changes that we all call "growth." I may not have changed much outside of my pain, but the "pain" itself has changed greatly.

I step inside my genuine self and bust up roles expectations and conformities. ...perhaps that's radical Larry me pulling up radishes rubbing off dirt and eating my roots when parents were not looking and climbing trees for fruit no bird or worm has poked into. ...not waiting for Santa Claus fruit baskets at age 5 because the lie was too fat to come down our skinny chimney Jeebush virgin born easter boy bunnies laying candy eggs on dogshit lawns ALL THE SAME LIES I reasoned against in kindergarten. ...my teacher was black and I loved her rejecting my family racism = theism blue eyed Jeebush

You have to remember that the "story" also includes pleasure-seeking as well as pain-avoidance. Some coping skills reward us but there may be even better ones or different tradoffs that work better. For example I have never been very physical which is both pain avoidance and pleasure-seeking; if I could sit around and read books and write software and prose all day I'd be happy as a clam. Or so I think. On the other hand not being particularly fit is catching up with me and here in my early 60s I am sometimes moving around and having balance issues like I'm 20 years older. Or to be honest, not as well as some 80 year olds I've met. So now I have to pursue stretching and exercise regimes to try to get my physical and chronological age somewhat in sync. So my investment in being bookish / heady / nerdy / not a gym goon worked (for some given value of "worked" ) for a long time, and now it's not.

The world you are born into will shape and scar you like a boulder falling down a large mountain.
Life experiences together with upbringing, education, culture, friendships..and too much influencers to list here will inform your decisions..your lifestyle..your outlook..your principles..your thought processes your personality. The painful experiences you encounter through your life inform your thought processes for better or worse.
Your personality is partially your genes, the rest is shaped by your environment and the sum of all your experiences IMO.

Who we are is bit a snapshot in time.

An ethereal cloud across a endless sky of existence......?
It's a nice concept. Kind of "look outside your frame of reference". But then formative life experiences aren't all pain and trauma....hopefully.
So I guess the point is try not to let the pain and trauma dictate your thought and action.

I think that's a little simplistic. Our personality is a manifestation of our whole life experience and in part our genetics.

So true!

Wow, your smokin good shit!!