I recently found a bunch of old photos from late high school and early college and realized how much has changed over the past few years. It’s really weird to see these two photos side by side because I just haven’t really though about how much I’ve changed. The one on the left is from a few years ago and the one on the right is from last week.

But the changes between now and a few years ago aren’t just physical. I’ve definitely become a hell of a lot more radical/revolutionary in not only my politics but also in my activism and feminism. (Although, I do stay away from radical feminism. Definitely more interested in revolutionary feminism for many reasons that I won’t go into now.) I’ve become more aware of social issues and the historical context behind them – like race/racism, colonialism, sexism/misogyny, heterosexism/cissexism, etc – and my perspective on the world is significantly different from a few years ago.

And up until I was 20 years old (ish) (and when that photo on the left was taken), I was extremely involved in health care related things. I have had several jobs and extracurricular classes/activities related to health care and had planned to eventually become a nurse practitioner for most of high school. I originally went to university to get my BSN and become a Registered Nurse but that’s really didn’t pan out.

Now though? I have a BA in Sociology and currently informally work as a dog walker and pet sitter. For the first time in a really long time, I have no idea what the future holds for me or even a general idea of where to go. And honestly, I’m kind of okay with that. I love my current job and I love having the ability to write when I want to. A few years ago, not having something to do every single moment of every day would have been weirdly stressful but now, it’s been really nice to have the ability to take a bit of a pause in life and decide what exactly I want to do instead of rushing into something.

Ultimately, I’m really glad for the transformation I’ve gone through already and I’m excited to see how I continue to transform and grow in the future.