How Have You Changed in the Past Two Years?

Life is like riding a roller coaster blindfolded.
You never know what's coming or when the course is going to change or when it will throw you down a corkscrew spiral, and it's full of ups and downs.
It will scare you, make you scream and laugh and feel completely exhilarated and sometimes sick.
But I'm a firm believer that we're riding on our own personal roller coasters that will lead us to be exactly where we need to be. But it only makes sense that from the start of that sometimes smooth and bumpy ride we change along the way and end up completely anew. 
With that said, let's talk about Denise Then and Denise Now.
Denise Then ... a college student at the University of New Mexico, unemployed and broke.
Denise Then was in the middle of her last semester at UNM and concentrating on finishing school strong. She was also stressing on what was to come after 4 1/2 years of college and two years of living in Albuquerque. Her worries consisted of what to wear for the weekend's shindigs, what that certain guy thought of her and making sure she saved enough time to get homework done.
Denise Now ... holds a bachelor degree in multimedia journalism, is employed as a reporter and is slightly less broke since two years ago.
I feel the biggest change I've experienced in the past couple of years is transitioning from college student status and stepping into the shoes of young adulthood, which has been a challenge. I'm still trying to learn how to walk, much less dance, in these "adulthood shoes," but I'm making progress.
I've learned that things in life can get a bit tougher with age, but also more pleasant by becoming more comfortable with the skin you are asked to live in.
The insecurities I had two years ago still linger, but new one's have sprung up, such as will I be successful in my career (now that I have one, I guess), will I be successful in my personal life and I worry if I can survive in this world by just relying on myself.
In the past two years I've let myself love again, which I didn't allow myself to do all throughout college. By allowing myself to share my life and myself with someone else taught me how amazing life can be, but I also learned not to settle for anything less than complete happiness and wild passionate crazy love.
I've also been tested as a woman in my mid-20's and challenged on my lifestyle of being single and pursing a life that suits me and makes me happy, which may come off to some as "selfish." But at the end of the day we're told we have one life to live so why live life for anyone else other than yourself? Two years ago I was still being very influenced by prominent figures in my life who were still helping mold who I am or what they wanted me to become.  
Today, I chose what kind of life I will have and where it goes.
Two years may not seem like a long time, but thinking back I've changed from feeling like a kid to finally feeling like an adult who can contribute to the world and a person who has gained most of the confidence to become who she truly wants to be.