Day 28: A picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?

I realise this is the same photo I have over there --> but I chose it because it's almost exactly a year old. It's from Halloween last year, which also happened to be Pride. Always happy to support our queer friends, my best friend and I headed out to the Court for the party. I was dressed up in this adorable fraulein costume, which was seemingly not as short (and probably not as cute) on me as it is on that model. I have a lollipop in my mouth because they were handing them out for free and who can resist free sugary stuff? Unfortunately though, we had got our hopes up too high for the night and, after retreating to Rosie O'Grady's for a while, we went home fairly disappointed. As for a photo of me now ... hold on, I'll just snap one:

There we go. Hello! Yes, my room is a bit of a mess. That's pretty typical.

So, how have I changed? That's hard to say. I apparently haven't kicked my habit of falling for unavailable men, nor of procrastinating. But I suppose the most obvious thing is that I'm so much happier now. This time last year I was anxious, bored with everything, and had no idea where I was going. Now I've got where I wanted and I'm far happier. I have many more friends that I've made at UWA, and they help keep me sane too. I'd also like to think I'm a lot more knowledgeable. I look back at the things I said and wrote and wonder what on earth I was thinking. God, I said some stupid things. And I was so ignorant! Of course, I'll probably look back at myself next year and say the same thing about 2010 me, but for now I feel like I'm doing well.

With that knowledge has also come a greater understanding of who I am and what I stand for. Even last year, I was pretty apathetic about things like politics and religion. I had opinions, sure - I've always had plenty of those - but I wasn't really prepared to back them up and do much with them. Now I'm studying politics, as well as actively engaging with like-minded people. It feels so much better to actually be involved in these sorts of things. Being sure about where I stand and willing to voice my opinions is a good feeling.

But other than that, I'm pretty much the same person. I have the same close friends, live in the same house, enjoy a lot of the same things, still giggle about immature things at times, still have to wage a mental battle with myself to leave my comfortable bed each morning, and still refuse to wear pants. Yep, same old Nikki.