can people really change?

i had a professor in college who used to say that people don't change, not even from religion. at the time i didn't realize what he meant. now i do. people can change certain behaviors within themselves but one can't change ones essence. one can channel ones anger in a positive fashion and not give in to ones gut reactions. but they are still there under the surface. a shy person can force their self to be more social, but innately their first gut reaction will be to be shy. an overly sensitive person will always have such sensitivities even  though they may be able to rationally confront a stressful situation. ones core make up is g-d given. what we do  have control over is how we channel these attributes.

hey jew!!

when i lived in the midwest, i always thought of new york city as this big , tough, anti-semitic town. then i moved here. when i was in college, i was always afraid of having a big anti-semitic incident with some scary new yorker. this was during the pre-disney times square years.
one saturday night when i was in college i was walking down fifth avenue with a group of my friends and we heard someone calling "hey jew!" from a distance. being the brave souls that we were we turned around and started running. at the time i thought that my biggest fears were becoming reality.
alas, it was not so. one of my friends happened to take a second glance at the guys who were calling out "hey jew!" . they were across the street from us waving their yamakas. a moment later they were on our side of the street. my friends and i yelled at them for scaring us.
fortunately for us , sometimes things arent always what they appear to be!!