Today's question for the 30 Days of Blogging Challenge asks me how I've changed over the past two years and honestly, I have no idea where to begin. Two years ago, I was in my Spring semester of my first year of college. I was unsure of basically everything going on in life and my grades were not that great. They were quite horrible, to be honest. To put it briefly, I wasn't doing too well, but here are some things that have changed since that point in my life. 

Going natural

It's been about 1 year and 8 months (holy crap, almost 2 years) since I went natural. I did what's known in the natural hair community as the "big chop" and cut off my hair. Like... all of my hair! I wasn't a big fan of how my face looked with really short hair, but over time, I grew to love my hair and it's texture and how healthy it was and now, I'm obsessed with my natural curls!

Being liberal & being a feminist

I realized very quickly in college that I am quite the liberal and after taking my first Women's Studies course, I am also quite the feminist. I now have my own opinions on controversial topics and I usually have no problem sharing those opinions with anyone who wants to know. 

Saying "no"

I used to be such a pushover and I wouldn't tell anyone how I really felt. You could treat me any type of way and I would either not notice that I was being treated badly or just let it slide, assuming that you were just having a bad day. But now, I'm a lot more vocal on how I really feel about certain situations and I can speak up and defend myself whenever I feel the need to. 

Making the grade

I've never been a straight-A student but I hadn't even come close to being one until I got my act together after my freshman year of college. In high school, I was a pretty mediocre student. I didn't try as hard as I could have, but I tried hard enough to get into a decent university. I learned my lesson my freshman year of college when I failed my first class and my GPA plummeted! I had never failed a class before and I was determined to never let that happen again. I changed my study habits and worked my little butt off to raise my GPA. I'm still working on getting that 4.0 GPA and every semester, I get closer and closer to reaching that goal. 

Knowing what career I want

I now know the difference between what I want to do as a hobby and what I want to do in my career. When I first came to college, I was a journalism major who loved theatre. I took one Intro to Theatre course and a year and a half later, I got into the BFA Acting program.  Auditioning for this program was the second major step in my lifelong journey of living happily and shamelessly (the first step was cutting my hair and going natural). I know that this is a pretty risky major that many people don't see a practical career in, but I love it. I didn't think I'd get into this program because I had close to no theatre experience, but I truly believe that I'm in this program for a reason and I'm going to get as much out of it as I can... even if that means spending the two extra years in college to do it. 

I've also learned that I want to be a huge LGBT activist. I've always believed in equality and I've always wanted to fight for the rights of the LGBT community, so when I found out that there was a minor in LGBT Studies at my school, I jumped at the opportunity to sign up for it!

Having standards

I (finally) have standards for both my future relationships and my friendships. I know how I want to be treated and I now know when I'm being treated unfairly or being taken advantage of or when a friend just isn't being a good friend. I'll admit that realizing this hasn't been easy and it's caused me to lose a few friends along the way, but knowing my worth makes the friendships that I have now mean so much more.

               Those are just a few changes that I've noticed within the past couple of years and looking at this list now, I do have to say that I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I've come a long way from where I was two years ago, but I still have a long way to go. Comment down below and let me know how you guys have changed or what life epiphanies you guys have had in the past couple of years. I'm actually very intrigued to know.

With love from your girl, 

Shatece