Can we escape the Past?

Can we ever really leave the past? I have just recently been reminded through conversations with an associate in my childhood that we can never really leave behind us the things or labels we attained in our youth. I would have thought that the gossip and back biting would have ended ages ago but alas I find that the bitter and jealousy of youth transcends into the fabric of our adult lives. At least it seems to be the case with my associate and in all honesty I am sure myself as well. For me it isn’t the jealousy necessarily but the fear. The fear of the hate and cruelty that the human race seems driven to inflict upon each other. It seems that no matter the accomplishments we have achieved in the later years of our lives we will forever be stained with remnants of our past. Or is it those stains of our past that define who we are. Does the culmination of each of our stains transcend to more that what they appear, are we each of us a Rorschach ink-blot seeing ourselves in one light while others view us so differently.