Don't You Forget About Me (NaBloPoMo)

I wanted to copy this recent post by one of my favourite bloggers because I thought it was a really neat concept. She took her very first Facebook profile photo and her current Facebook profile photo, put them side by side and compared to examine the ways that her life has changed in that time. I couldn't wait to try it myself!

Here is my FIRST Facebook profile photo from January 2007:

Ugh, this is a horrid photo of me in my opinion, but in the spirit of the post I'll still put it up (I hope you appreciate me humiliating myself for the integrity of the blog, y'all!!)

So, at that time I was only about a month into age 22, approx. 3 years into University, just following my third and last co-op work term, and I believe the photo was taken in a bar somewhere in downtown Halifax (at that time, my friends and I would go out dancing fairly often). I believe I was dying my hair darker then (more of a dark brown shade - which in retrospect was NOT a good colour for me) and playing around with how to wear my bangs a lot (I'm still doing that!). What's actually more interesting to me is not the place in my life at the time this photo was taken, but the place in my life I would be in within the next 6 months. Approximately 4 months from this photo, I would be living and studying on an International Public Relations course in London, England with 18 other University students (3 from my Uni, the rest from various Uni's in the USA). That trip would be a defining moment in my life in more ways then one - it was the fulfillment of a long-time dream of living/studying abroad and meeting amazing people, but it also involved one of the worst losses of my entire life (the death of someone very close to myself and my family) and the subsequent emotional struggle. I took my first solo trip just after I heard the news, and it remains one of my proudest moments.

And, my current photo is:

Well, fast-forward 3.5 years and I'm now 25 (will be 26 in December), smack-dab in the middle of a Quarter-Life Crisis and feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place in my career and personal life, grappling with many worries, questions, insecurities and reflections.  You can't really see my hair, but it's actually similar in style to the above photo (though oddly enough I think my hair has thickened), but an auburn colour instead of dark brown (much more flattering to my skin tone, if you ask me). My outfit is certainly more colourful and creative and shows how I've become more creative and daring with my style. I have definitely gained weight, but working on that every day as hard as I can (hey, I'm human right? I blame Thanksgiving...and Halloween). I hardly ever go dancing now (more because I don't really have anyone to go with than not having the desire to), and my friends circle has entirely changed.

I have mixed feelings about this comparison - it was definitely a fun and thought-provoking exercise, however it was also a tad disconcerting. In many ways, my life was much simpler back then and I was a lot less jaded. Life was more fun and carefree in many ways too, and part of me would love to go back to that simpler existence. But life is also different in positive ways, namely that I'm ten times more self-aware, self-sufficient, street-smart and realistic now than I was then. My life isn't really worse or better when it comes right down to it; it's just DIFFERENT. And I guess in a way that's sort of comforting because I think if my life hadn't changed much in 3.5 years I would be really, really depressed! One thing's for sure, I have more ideas and projects brewing in my brain than ever, and in a way the sky is the limit on where I can go next and how I can push myself. And that's a change I can really get behind.