How getting older changes your perspective of life

I'll be turning 27 soon and over the last 10 years my outlook on life has changed dramatically.

I feel like i grew up quite fast, not as fast as some but i was always considered intelligent and smart for my age. I would observe everything and take it in like a little sponge. I'm a firm believer in "knowledge is power" and even subconsciously at a young age i wanted to know everything. not necessarily the sort of stuff you learn in school but peoples secrets, peoples desires. i would be in a room with 30 people and i would zone in on one particular conversation of interest and take anything i could from it. Maybe that makes me manipulative but i like to know more about people than they know about me and if i ever need it to have something to use against them. Again knowledge is power.

I got my first job at age 13, walking dogs for family friends. $5 an hour. As soon as i was able to get e legitimate job i did, I worked part time jobs until the age of 16 where i got full time employment. At this age it was incedible for me, I was 16 making $400 a week while most of my friends were still at school and the ones who had jobs were part time making maybe 100-150 a week.
I was bad with my money but i always thought to myself that life was about having fun so I spent all my money hanging out with friends and partying.

I always had goals i wanted to achieve, i wanted to own a house and have a nice car, i wanted to retire early and travel the world but i never really made any steps to do it. Just kept partying and wasting away my money.
I also consider myself a fairly generous person, I would happily pay for a friends drinks or lend them money, I would donate money to charity's and help people i knew that were in need.
I ended up being homeless and living in my car and struggling to get by, i still worked full time but on a much lower paying job than any i had before so it was tough.

Skip forward a couple of years and i was still pretty much the same, spending my money on nothing, putting alot of it toward other people and not really considering my future even though i knew what i wanted. I remember taking in a housemate that had nowhere to go, she was fine for a couple months but then things got bad. She was disrespecting the house and drawing on the walls in her room, she was later and later on rent and bills and would play her drums loud at night but the other people in the house didn't seem too bothered by it. Well she ended up stopping paying rent completely, she was behind 3 months on her share of bills and one day she just up and left. She left a bunch of her crap at our house and i was left with $1000 bills in my name that no one else contributed to.

I started realizing this wasn't just a one off and it was becoming a pattern in my life. When i needed help there wasn't really anyone around to help me, but i felt like i was always helping someone else. There are only 2 people who have ever truly put in the effort to help me when my life has gotten shit and that's my recently ex-girlfriend and my mum.

I began to get quite cynical and negative about people, I lost contact with friends over petty shit and about 90% of the people in my life just faded away. I've started caring less and less about other peoples problems and trying to help them because i feel it never gets reciprocated. That's not to say i wont help someone in need but nowadays i focus on myself and put a lot more energy into my goals. I still want to retire early and still have a lot of the same desires but the way i view the world is much more realistic now.

I quickly realized that most of the people in this world take and take and give nothing in return and its one of the biggest issues our society faces. Everyone likes to complain about their situation but the more people i tried to help the more people i watched crash and fail for no other reason than themselves. If someone gives you an opportunity or a chance to make things better you take it, not take it for granted. Society is filled with people who care about themselves and themselves alone, they will take what you give and show nothing in return and if you find some who does reciprocate hold onto them.

Now that im older i realize that there seems to be a severe lack of empathy in this world and its one of the reasons i prefer to put my time and effort towards animals. They are always thankful for what you give them and they repay you with happiness and friendliness.
I want to start a family and achieve my goals and if that means that i have to stop trying to help everyone else then so be it. I wont consider myself selfish because i feel like i tried and never received the help i gave outwards back. I never asked for it but there were times when i so desperately needed it and there was no-one there.

I learnt that there is only 1 person to blame for your situation and that is yourself so if you're not happy with how life is going you need to take action to fix it.
I now consider myself a realist as i don't see the glass half full or half empty. i just see that its there.

If you want something go out and take it. We should never rely on anyone else to help us because in this world the only person you will ever be able to 100% rely on is yourself. Put faith in yourself, be confident and be determined, if you make the right moves and do it for yourself no one will ever be able to say you got to were you are from luck or someone else.

The only person i will ever rely on again is this guy

Peace