Describe what you were like when you were 18-19 years old.

I was basically a shut-in and I played Second Life all the time. those were some of the best years of second life for griefers, with all the script-hacking still prominent...the hackers/griefers/trolls were some of the coolest people you could meet on there imo... Nowadays it's just unoriginal mic spammers...
I would also (in real life) dress up in strange outfits/makeup/hairstyles and cross dress in my closet and take pics of it and ask on various sites like yahoo answers what people though of "that person"

...So, a weird loser. same as now :D

At 19 I was such an blind idiot. Listened to destructive music such as Marilyn Manson, going as far as agreeing with his ideology. Of course I won't blame everything on that guy, it was my fault, choosing to go down that path and believing there was no need for the existence of morality. Now, I became Christian, got baptized and is actually believing for real and living out the faith, which is crazy when thinking about the lies I used to believe. I won't deny it, life feels and is so much better now! It's awesome. I certainly don't miss my past :)

I don't know if I can accurately describe myself from that point in my life. I was me. How am i not myself. Hehe. Probably more hyper and more adventurous. I had fewer responsibilities so I was able to be spontaneous. I was young, so young. I was shy and hung out in the background but not so shy that people didn't notice me. The few friends I had were good friends. I remember people thinking I was weird but for no reason I could tell. It was mostly that I always did my own thing and asked why when people told me to do something.

Tough as nails and mean as a rattlesnake, at 16, but by 19 I was the real deal; a Haight/Ashbury, San Francisco, long haired, pot smoking hippie. Go figure?

Kind of the same, I think. Wasn't too long ago. I was angrier, I suppose.

Cool as fuck.

I was a competitive engineering student at a competitive university. I could never quite figure out why girls refused to talk to me at parties.

You'll be shocked when you're 25, like me, and you look back and realize how much you've changed in such a short timeframe. Sure, you might look exactly the same in 5-7 years, but your opinions and personality might have changed drastically. I think most 18-20 year olds have a pretty big ego, and that's natural. You honestly feel as if you're all done growing up and that your personality is what it's always gonna be. I was naive. Even though I'd peaked intellectually and physically, I hadn't peaked emotionally.

I had a wide-eyed and optimistic outlook when I was 18. I felt like my life was just beginning, and everybody else existed purely to open doors for me. I honestly believed nothing bad could happen to me because I was smart, good-looking, and charming. Then life happens. Failures happen. You become a little jaded.

The best change is that you became WAY less selfish. Sure, you were probably even MORE selfish at 12-15, but you really start prioritizing others when you get into your twenties.

Your tastes (music, food, movies) might change a little, but your opinions will change a lot. I'm not talking about the basal tenets of your world view here, but you might be surprised in a few years if you keep a journal or a record today like I did. I tended to be a lot more presumptuous back then. I'm just as curious today, but I don't jump to conclusions and theories as fast. I do a lot more "homework". I look back now, and realize I made a lot of snap judgments and generalizations in my haste to move on to the next new thing.

In general, I was also a LOT more superficial and vain. A lot of my worries were really petty. When you get older, you become a better communicator, and you learn to use your crystallized intelligence; your wit, your wordplay. Teenagers don't usually have this down pat yet.

I'm definitely less dramatic and emotional. I'm less sexual. I'm less hyper/crazy. I'm less trusting. I have less self-confidence. My priorities have completely changed. I no longer yearn for fame or fortune like I used to. I just want to do what makes me happy.

The funniest way I've changed is how I now know and realize how immature I still am and how much growing I still have yet to do. Something else that occupies your mind a lot more at 19-23 than 17-18 is nostalgia and the past. When you're in high school all you care about is the "new" and the novel, but when you're around 19-20 you start to reminisce more about your childhood and start seeing the world as "changing for the worse". Now that I'm 25, I'm starting to realize that change in inevitable, and that it's a waste of time pining for what used to be, but we all seem to need that period of reflection that begins around the end of university. You're finally out of school after decades of it, and you really feel the need to assess your life before you move on.

Overall, I think I'm a better person, but that what made me 'me' is STILL the core of my soul. I do miss the optimism though. You're so resilient when you're 18. One minute you could feel your world is ending, the next you're on top of it. (:

As for what causes the changes, I believe that, in general, most people experience a lot of negative "firsts" in their early twenties. Often you'll have your first major breakup, your older relatives will begin to die, you might feel lost when school ends, you might feel homesick when you move out, you might even start to have your first health issues. All of this is sure to lead to some major epiphanies. It's a big time for change.

At that age I just wanted to be left alone. People tried to reach out to me, but I didn't understand how to interact well with others, which made me feel like less of a human being than everybody else. I couldn't have a normal conversation with somebody without feeling extremely anxious or uncomfortable. 5 years later, I feel like I've changed quite drastically. I started realizing there's more to life. My social skills have improved, but still aren't great and I'm more confident than I was then.

Significantly less mature than I am now at age 21.

In that period of my life I was going through mental, emotional, and philosophical changes that others around me weren't, I felt lost and misunderstood. I was confused on to what was happening with me and if I should speak to others about it, but I didn't want to confuse them. I never showed it on the outside. Otherwise I was my obnoxious trying to be funny for people to get my attention self; for me it seemed the only way for me to fit in was by being funny. It helped but I wouldn't say I really made friends or was respected, more so I was a well liked individual. For the most part though, I kept to myself.

I was younger :3

Same as I am now

I was shy, intense, socially somewhat awkward, but smart as a whip and given to bouts of obsessive concentration. It's probably a good thing we didn't have the Internet at hand in those days, or I would've vanished down that rabbit hole. I found plenty enough rabbit holes to vanish down as it was.

Since then I've mellowed and become more comfortable in my own skin. I've become more aware of my own ignorance. I drink a lot less beer and more coffee.

I was pretty normal I guess...I wanted to be a journalist or a paperback writer :) I never thought Id get married or have kids, both happened. I only lost my virginity at 18 but I didn't love him.
I was a lot more happy go lucky, around 20 I started having anxiety and my life got a lot less promising.

My emotions were scattered, I had no control over them, very little patience either. Absolutely zero self-awareness. I talked a lot about myself, sometimes only about myself. Music tastes were 70% metal and hard rock. Remaining 30% was stuff that played on the radio. I guess the few good parts were that I was simple minded and not skeptical of anything. Sure, I barely had the capacity to think about another person, but this made me simply -do- things, a lot of them. Worst of all was my short-temper, oh I was vicious. Acted poorly and said some cold, harsh and regretful things to people

I was a wasted mess. Now I'm just trash.

I was a womanizer, I spent so much of my time trying to pick up women. I used to objectify women. I had a crazy sex drive.

I am just one year out of that range haha so I'm like the same as last year.

I had pretty well cleaned up my act, started a long process of healing, and met the love of my life. My health problems started becoming prominent as well.

Pretty much the same. I've gotten fatter. That's about it.

I did ecstasy and wrote term papers while recovering from nights before. I drank more beer than I probably ever will again in my life and, to be honest, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing most of the time, though I thought I did. I was just wild and carefree. Then reality kicked in.

chicken nugget

Right now.. lazily happy uni chiq playing cod making the most of this holiday ^_^

I read twilight and made duck faces in almost every picture...so if that tells you anything.

I'm ashamed that was only a few years ago.

At 18 I was very angry at everything. At 19 I was much happier because my living circumstances had changed for the better. My twenties have been objectively better than my teenage and childhood years, but I'm a lot unhappier in general. I think it's because I've become a little more aware of the world around me, both on a small scale (my family and community) as well as a larger scale (the world). As a child/teen, I was oblivious to a lot of unpleasant things that went on. Ignorance truly is bliss.

A dumbass

I was a angsty person back then who was angry at the world, heavily into WWE, and would stay inside playing video games and watching YouTube videos for hours. The only times I would go out was when I was going to work, walking my then dog Blackie, or hanging out with my sister.

http://s281.photobucket.com/user/psychochickie666/media/Pics%20used%20for%20forum%20sites/228047_189786271073001_4122693_n-1.jpg.html?sort=6&o=14

I was a bookwork and studied hard in college.