I Did the #HowHardDidAgingHitYou Challenge and It Hit Me!

If you've logged onto Facebook, or Instagram and Snapchat lately, you may have noticed your friends doing the #HowHardDidAgingHitYou challenge. It's officially the first viral trend of 2019 and it's hitting the interwebs HARD! The challenge is real simple, users share two pictures- one of the very first selfie they uploaded to the site and the second a recent picture. Since it initially started on Facebook many are taking the time to reminisce when they upload the pictures.

Now, I usually don't like to fall into viral trends so this one was no different. I scrolled through my feeds on FB and Instagram hit "like" on some, laughed at a few and definitely enjoyed hearing stories of growth and acceptance. It certainly was entertaining to see the challenge come from friends I went to high school with and especially entertaining to see them from my older relatives. And as much as I resisted, it's officially hit me, I'm about to be 30! I could barely remember when I joined Facebook so I decided to partake in the challenge and share it with you, my faithful readers.

I joined Facebook in 2009 and THIS was my first profile picture:

This was the summer of 2009 in my bathroom at the ripe age of 20. I had what they called a "Marilyn" piercing and had just seen my favorite band, The Sounds, live for the first time and wanted to show off my shirt, well at least part of it. Now as the rules go, you have to use a current selfie, well this is the only current selfie I've taken this year:

This is me at 29, on New Year's eve, note the use of the filter! It doesn't look like much of a difference, I'm still wearing glasses and my eyebrows are still there, thank goodness. But I do feel different. All this did was remind me that everything takes time. If 29 year old Joanna could tell 20 year old Joanna something it'd be: "Don't worry, things will work out for you and you'll find your place in this world. Don't stop trying!"

Have you tried the challenge? Share them with me!