10-Year Personal Reflection: 2009-2019

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you spent your New Year’s festivities with the ones you love, whether you stayed in or went out.

I thought this post would be super fun to do. There are probably similar posts and tags like this one, but I’m doing my own thing at the moment, haha. When I first made this post, I completely forgot that it’s a social media trend to have a 10-year challenge. Mine’s similar, but I want to dig a little deeper and get to know the person in the photos; what’s the amount growth that occurred in between when the photos were taken?

I’m a person that tends to reflect on a lot of things in life, [hence my blog name] whether that be stuff that happened in my life or just stuff that’s got me to think and use my head.

My Version of the 10-Year Challenge

So, this is a 10-year reflection post that you’ll get to know me on a personal level. I’m going to flashback to life [nearly] 10 years ago just to see where I was and how far I’ve come as a person. Plus, it’s okay to do a bit of research since 10 years is a bit of time. Remember those Facebook answer lists? This is gonna be similar.

This will take place between 2009-2019 since 2020 is in progress. So, I really have to dig through the archives of my photos and memory bank.

My Life in 2009

• What was the year 10 years ago? How old were you? For the sake of this post, 2009. It’s January 1st, so I’d be 14, sheesh.

• Were you in school? If so, what grade? If not, what were doing during this time? I was in school and it was the middle of 9th grade, taking on freshman year!

• Favorite movie that came out that year? I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I do love the movie, Up. My Algebra 1 teacher loved it and she had us watch it in the spring semester of school whenever it was released on DVD. She gave us Snickers to eat while watching it at the end of the school year, so that was cool.

• Favorite movie genre and music artist? Always romance for my movie genre. Thriller/Horror is a close second. For music, I’m pretty sure it was Taylor Swift because I would always listen to country music. I honestly don’t remember the any other type of music I listened to 10 years ago!

• Favorite song of that year or at that time? Although released in 2008, I loved Taylor Swift’s Fearless album, especially since the song, “Fifteen.” It was my corny song I listened to during my freshman year thinking some of the events in that song would happen to me, but they didn’t.

• Chain letters/messaged have been around forever, but did you forward them around this time? I remember this being a thing 10 years ago. My favorite one is something like: Forward to 10 people and your crush will text you at midnight. I didn’t really believe in that stuff, but it was quite humorous. We all wanted to believe in them a little, right? I had a purple LG flip phone that I absolutely loved because I could change the color of the background and add music to messages. [Could anyone else do that?] Well, I was the lucky one if you didn’t! I would send relevant letters to my best friend at the time — although, I do remember sending a sad one to her and I think her mom freaked out and thought it was about my friend going through something personal! Oops.

• What was your dream job? Be a writer. I’ve always wanted to write my own poetry collections, and I still do. It was a long shot, but I thought writing fiction would be cool as well since I read so many books.

• Favorite thing to drink? You mean besides coffee? I really loved drinking Sprite with pepper sprinkled in it. I don’t know why I was a strange kid, but it tasted so good to me! Whenever I drank soft drinks, I’d order Sprite at restaurants on occasion and pour pepper in it.

• Were you an extrovert or introvert? Since these were my high school days, I was super introverted. I still am, but I was an even bigger one in high school. I never raised my hand, always avoided the yearbook camera, and did your school have those superlative questions to fill out? I made sure to make mine as bland as possible because I didn’t want to have the slightest chance of them chasing me down and taking a picture of me, not that I would have come up with something super witty at the time. I was a bit socially awkward.

• What did you like to do for fun? You could find me going to the library checking out books left and right. Even at school, I would check them out and read throughout the day.

• Is life going in the direction that you imagined it by now? Honestly, I had no idea how life was going to turn out for me or if I deserved what I have now. I was a little more pessimistic and one to expect the worst. I constantly dreamed about my life and speculated all the different outcomes, but where I’m at today? I couldn’t have expected it. I did think that I’d be settled down by now, [happened] with someone that I knew at that time, [didn’t; I was really dreaming at 14 — thanks for that, Nicholas Sparks] and have the dream job of writing and making a difference, [in the works, getting there].

• What’s one word to describe this year? Discover.

• What was the biggest challenge you were facing? I’d say the biggest challenge for me was surviving high school. Teenagers can be mean, you can get caught up with things that won’t matter in a few years, and you may even forgot how to treat people nicely. It’s hard enough with all that to find your place in the world at such a young age.

• What would you tell yourself 10 years ago? Still applicable today, but I would tell myself to embrace who you are and be confident in yourself. Don’t sell yourself and what you have to offer in this world short. My mantra now is to do something to get you out of your own comfort zone because you are only limiting yourself. Looking back, I let life just happen. I didn’t take control of it.

• Upload a picture of yourself 10 years ago. So, I’ve been trying to find a picture of me from 2009 but I must have misplaced them or they’re gone forever. Instead, enjoy this terrible, embarrassing, horrifying [et cetera] yearbook photo of me until I find some that don’t make me cringe as much.

I know, yikes. I do not miss wearing braces. It’s pretty funny to see how I looked back then, [people saw me every day like this!?] but I do want to reflect on the fact that I was such a different person back then with about a quarter of the confidence that I have now. In the yearbook, there’s this photo and one more — both of which are terrible.

On a better note, this is October 30, 2010 whenever I found Mason just to show how a year changed for me. I think this was when life started doing its thing and I felt a little better now.

2019 Answers

Current Year & Age:	Like I said, I’m making this about 2019 since I don’t know how life is going to be in 2020. 24.
Current Education Status:	BS of Science degree: Major in English, Minor in Creative Writing
Current Favorite Movie of 2019:	I don’t particularly have one, but I did enjoy Five Feet Apart. Such a tearjerker. I thought it was better than The Fault in Our Stars.
Current Favorite Movie Genre & Music Artist:	I still love the Rom-Coms and Thrillers I’m really digging Halsey and Taylor Swift, still
Current Favorite Song:	“Die From a Broken Heart“ by Maddie & Tae For a more uplifting song: “Alright” by Lady Antebellum
Current Social Media Trend:	Memes — I’m not clever enough to make up my own, so I don’t participate
Current Dream Job:	Poet and full-time blogger. I learned in college that I kinda suck with dialogue and wanted to focus on the little details than get on with the plot. [This was before I discovered Wordsworth and his attention to details, especially his hedge-rows.] So, poetry it is. Blogging is fun and I learn something new every day.
Current Favorite Drink:	Caramel & Toasted Almond iced lattes from Dunkin’ — I can’t imagine that changing, but we’ll see.
Introvert or Extrovert?	Still an introvert — INFJ
Fun Activity?	Write and also read blogs
How is life going?	I’m super excited about the future. I’m more determined to achieve my dreams. There’s been many rough patches, but with lots of faith and work, I know that God’s working on me. I have a strong supportive network of loved ones that encourage me daily. I’ve found more confidence in myself than I have in many years and I’m loving it.
What’s one word to describe 2019?	Persevere.
What are challenges you are facing?	Living in a new city and the uphill battle of making freelancing a true dream are the bigger challenges right now. I also want to grow my blog and poetry, so it’s a lot on my plate to add. So, balancing between all of these and flourishing them are things I hope to achieve at least within the next 10 years!
What would you tell yourself now?	I would say just keep going and make it happen. If you settle for your plan B, you’ll be content and won’t achieve your plan A. Stop letting people’s doubt and your own fear prevent you from doing what you truly want to do.

• Upload a picture of you now. This was taken last night while celebrating New Year’s Eve with some friends of mine. I think we can appreciate this growth — hallelujah!

Your Turn

Blogger friends, I challenge you to take part in this tag [#10yearpersonalreflection] so that you not only look back at your photos, but also remember the person that you were a time ago and who you are currently. If you’re brave enough, share your yearbook photo as well!

Have fun, learn, and even laugh at yourself. But also, appreciate all that you’ve done and will do.

Tell me some of your answers to these questions. I would love to know!

Some questions:

• Were you a confident person 10 years ago?
• Did you have to have braces?
• Are you an introvert or extrovert?
• What’s one word that describes your past 10 years? Also, for the next 10 years?