There is no such thing as "now" or the "present." Everything is either the past or the future. By the time you finish reading this, it is in the past.
The next line you haven't read? it is the future... (and now it's the past)
Light travelling from stars is never shown to us now. By the time we recognize and process it, it is in the past. The synapses that fire and create each sense are all past - based on previous synapses and electrical impulses.
Douglas Adams (via Ford Prefect) said "Time is an illusion." I provide the supposition that the past and the future are not, but "now" is an illusion. Well, was.
So, as is the motto with my life... Don't tell me who or what you are. Tell me what you were.. and what you are going to be.
That's what matters.