The pallor of abandoned convictions

A drabble, to compromise between a random idea eating away at me and my laziness is at its peak.

How many convictions have you had, only to find that today they aren't in the picture at all? How many of those ideals have you held on to like binding chains of iron? Till time and society slowly eroded them away and one day you simply cast them away as you would an ill-fitting garment. Now you see someone, "young blood" as is the jargon, passionately standing up for what you once believed in. You sit there watching, not knowing whether to smile at their naivety, applaud their belief or simply tell them that disillusionment is merely a few years away. Do you feel the numbness that comes with too many abandoned convictions? Do you wonder if your ideals were skewed or if it was the world that was skewed because it would not allow them to exist? Was your hold on them not strong enough? Or was it not worth holding onto in the first place?

Is adapting to your environment a vice or a virtue? Where lies that invisible line standing on which you retain your identity and yet belong in society?

P.S:As always,I have far more questions than I can find answers to. I ask these very well knowing that they are open-ended.But that's the thing.It makes life interesting:)