When an Old Friend Thought My Instagram Was Hacked, I Knew I’d Changed

“Hey man, wassup? Just to tell ya someone hacked your Instagram!”

An old friend sent me this a few minutes after I posted “Finally — The Holy Grail Of Weight Loss”.

“No, man, nobody hacked my account.”, I replied.

“Seriously, was that you???”, he texted me back, perplexed.

I like this guy. He’s a good friend. We first met during a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering twenty years ago. We were all broke back then, so we lived under the same roof with another friend. We shared rent and food. We became very close and knew each other very well.

I was his best man for his marriage, and he was mine. Our kids are approximately the same age. We worked at the same aircraft manufacturer, he in avionics and I in propulsion.

Before we met, I had graduated magna cum laude (final score of 9.2 out of 10) in Brazil and studied engineering at one of the most prestigious schools in France. Gustave Eiffel, the guy who designed the Eiffel Tower, studied there too — imagine that.

So, what picture would you have of me? A freaking engineer nerd, right? And let me tell you, you’d be pretty damn right until a few years ago. I was the quintessential example.

I was.

What changed?

I did.

Around five years ago I started reading philosophy and psychology books and was completely drawn by this new world. I devoured one book after the other, with book summaries for dessert. Fitness books were on the menu too, by the way.

Not only did I start reading, but I also started putting all this knowledge into practice. And, oh, I started writing too.

Where did the nerd persona go? Did he die? Nope, not at all. He’s alive and strong, contributing to aviation safety in the Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority. He just now lives under the same roof (or should I say skull?) as the psychology/philosophy/fitness enthusiast.

But my old friend, who moved to Europe around five years ago, hadn’t met this fairly new facet of me until then. Being so different from what he expected, he was baffled.

And — I must confess — I was taken aback when I received his message. But then, after a few moments, I was like “Ha!”. That meant something. That meant I had indeed changed.

So, if you’re on a journey of personal transformation, aim at this:

Change so much that your friends think your social media account was hacked.

How’s that for a goal?

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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