Very Belated Then/Now Questions

[cosmic_llin]

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.

Comments

[narrativian]

I suspect that we'll have at least several giggles if you choose an age for me...

;-)

[cosmic_llin]

27. I'd love to know what you were doing when you were my age. ;)

[narrativian]

Crikey, that might not be giggleworthy at all! That was a transition time for me: my life as I knew it was effectively over and I was recovering from a year of life-threatening illness, and in the process of leaving the music industry frontline, and temporarily undersupplied with disposable income - so there is surprisingly little difference between the me of then and the me of 33 years later, even though rather a lot happened in the years in between o_0

But that in itself might be interesting, so I'll do it when I get home later...

[narrativian]

Much later...

It's not giggleworthy at all, sad to say, but here it is anyway. Bitter much, moi? Well yes, but we already knew that. Thank you for continuing to put up with my misery o_0

Age 27 and now

I lived in:

Then: a gorgeous house in Wimbledon. Technically a share, but my friend (whose family's property it was) was usually away on film shoots so I pretty much had the whole pile to myself. It rocked.

Now: a horrible, nasty little 'plastic shed' in a horrible, nasty little suburb in a nasty ugly uncultured nation at the arsehole of the planet. I've done my best to convert the insides into a comfortable, welcoming hobbit-hole. It may be a plastic shed but at least it's ours!

I drove:

Then: I was in one of the then-rare temporary periods of being without my own wheels. This was soon remedied :-)

Now: for reasons we know but won't mention here, I am without wheels again and probably will always be. Yes, other half has a wheeled vehicle, but I wouldn't drive it in a million years because it's not a real car. Automatic transmissions, eww ick! Still, I get lifts to places, so I don't begrudge paying for most of the repairs. And I love walking, as you know. But the PT here blows and damn, I miss driving :-(

I was in a relationship with:

Then: H1, primary lover, and a fabulously enjoyable cornucopia of disposables.

Now: H3. Hardly even qualifies as a relationship much of the time, but we do have some excellent conversations and a shared bed.

I feared:

Then: the cancer returning.

Now: ageing. Dying. The Auditors. Never again getting to remission from this boring chronic immune disorder.

I worked at:

Then: my beloved profession, same as I'd been doing since the age of twelve.

Now: cleaning other people's dirty floors and toilets.

I wanted to be:

Then: I was already living my dream, had been for many years, and I loved it and always will.

Now: back home and safe. As if that's likely to happen...

[cosmic_llin]

Crikey, sorry I picked 27! It does sound like it was pretty awesome back then, but I do think now you're just spreading your amazingness around in a very different way. <3

[narrativian]

Daww! I have to admit that whenever the black clouds dissipate for a little whole - as they've done right-now-tonight - the excellence of most of my life before I came here more than makes up for the lack of excellence now. And yes, I do enjoy being an Actual Crone and having Mentor-Crone superpowers :D