is the past really the past?

suffocating in the past and i can't seem to get away from it. no matter what i do or how i run away, the past always catches up to me and kicks me in the ass. there have been waves of calm but they don't call it the "calm before the storm" for no reason. just when you feel like you've escaped it for good and just when you feel like you've overcome that one obnoxious hurdle, it somehow creeps its way back into your life. you would have thought that by now this bullshit is over and done with. but how can you expect people to change? i guess it's too much to ask for people to take into consideration ANYONE else but themselves. but what can i say even to that, i'm not perfect.