Very Belated Then/Now Questions

carawj did this ages ago and I basically haven't posted since (more on that shortly), so here it is - what I was up to at age 19 versus now (age 27!). Comment if you want an age to do!
I lived in:

Then - A self-catering flat in uni halls. I had a weird trapezium-shaped room with a lovely view of the karaoke bar across the way, one noisy messy obnoxious flatmate, two who mostly kept to themselves, and one who is still one of my very best friends.

Now - carawj and I live together in a little one-bedroom in North London. It's in a nice area - quiet-ish, but with a nice park, good transport links, a few good shops, and close to a lot of our local friends, most of whom are also big fannish dorks, which is nice. The flat itself is lovely and I like it a lot. If we could add on a small extra room (to keep the books in), maybe an airing cupboard, and garden access, I could stay here forever.

I drove:

Then - Nothing - for me a decent computer was a higher priority than driving lessons, so that's what I got, and by this point I wasn't riding my bike much either.

Now - Same! Living in London I find public transport a bit of an annoyance but it's so generally convenient (compared to the buses back in North Wales, anyway) that I haven't felt the need to have my own transport, and anyway if I had the money for driving lessons, there'd still probably be stuff that was more important to do with it.


I was in a relationship with:

Then - Nobody. I dated a bit, fairly unsuccessfully. One guy from the uni sci-fi society basically stalked me until I agreed to go on a date with him, and then tried to guilt me into sex. (I was young and stupid enough to think I owed him a date because of the effort he'd put in wooing me, but I drew the line at that.) Another guy I dated for a little while because he was in a band and I wanted to be the girlfriend of someone in a band, but he had a lot of issues that he basically expected would be cured by the power of my love, and it was too much pressure from someone I was only vaguely into.

Now - I'm marrying carawj in less than five weeks! Being with her for the past four-and-a-half years has been the best adventure ever, and I'm looking forward to it continuing!

I feared:

Then - Never really connecting with anyone romantically. That I might fail the German portion of my degree (as it turned out I dropped it to focus on Russian.) That if people knew who I really was they wouldn't like me.

Now - I fear that I'll get stuck in this nine-to-five thing forever. It's an uncomfortable fear but it keeps me motivated. I fear that this novel I've spent so long working on might never be unleashed on an unsuspecting populace. (But if it isn't, that doesn't mean I'll stop trying.)

I worked at:

Then - I was at uni, but I had part-time and holiday jobs here and there. During the summer I worked on a busy pier selling ice-cream and snacks and writing stories on the backs of doughnut bags when it was quiet. When my student loan failed to come through I briefly worked selling double-glazing over the phone, which was pretty horrible.

Now - I'm a subeditor for a media company, mostly writing/editing TV listings for kids' channels. I've been there for a while now and I'm very bored of it, but it pays the bills and it allows me to work from home, which gives me a lot of extra writing time. For now the trade-off is worth it.

I wanted to be:

Then - A glamorous famous jet-setting prize-winning author.

Now - An author who writes diverse, thoughtful stories that appeal to people who often don't see themselves reflected in mainstream literature. I especially want to write YA but I have a few ideas outside that too.

(no subject)

I do feel pretty bad for mostly abandoning LJ/DW right when I said I was going to get back into it, but I think I underestimated how much of a time-suck planning a wedding - even a relatively low-key one - is. Plus it's been a pretty busy year generally, but the wedding is the cut-off point after which we don't really have anything planned, and as excited as I am about the wedding, I'm also excited to relax afterwards!

One thing I'm excited about is Nine Worlds this weekend, it's going to be pretty amazing. So torn over exactly what to attend, though!

I've been vaguely keeping up with my circle/friends page, but I'm sure there's stuff I've missed. So everyone - tell me what's the most awesome thing that happened to you recently? (If nothing did, feel free to make something up!)