Revertigo?

I've been filling my days up with old episodes of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) lately, because after watching One Tree Hill seasons 1-7 for the fourth time, it's time to move on.

So anyways, sometime in season 3 of HIMYM (I think), Robin (Cobie Smulders, who, by the way, i have a new appreciation for after seeing the avengers - damn, she's gorgeous!) gets a visit from an old boyfriend and she immediately turns into her old self, the version she was with him when she was sixteen. And for comedy, Lily gets a visit from a friend who also reverts back to the black-woman she pretended to be in high school - Marshall termed this revertigo.

Anyways, it got me thinking.. Are we really doomed in that way for the rest of our lives? Can we see someone we used to know from another chapter of our life and always revert back to that version of us in their presence?

For example, I had a great guy friend in high school. He was sweet and sensitive but always teased by guys for being so sensitive and overlooked by girls for his lack of being forward. Now, four years on, he's got a string of girlfriends, a regular party-goer and had gained all this confidence and even a tattoo. But when he's back with all our high school friends, especially the guys, he goes back to being that shy, sensitive teased guy he was all those years ago.

It's obvious we change and grow and mature as people as we get older. Sometimes for the worse, often for the better. But why is it that when we're out into a group of the people who knew the old you, you immediately revert back to that person?

I believe people can change. I see it in myself and in the people around me. But what happens when those people don't let you? Is it possible for my friend to be the new confident guy he is now with all the old high school mates? Is it possible when they think of him in the same way?

Change happens all the time. You can fight it or delay it, but it happens. With people, they do change too. Sometimes they hide it because certain people already think of you in a certain way and to change it or to challenge is too hard or too embarrassing or just too difficult. Change in a person changes perceptions, opinions, reputations and relationships. So maybe we revert back so we don't challenge them. But life is about growing and changing and if you can't be the new you with your old friends then either you need new friends or you risk changing everything you know.