How have you changed over the last 5 years?

This year I will be 15 years old, when I think back to when I hit the double digits almost 5 years ago... I've changed a hell of a lot as a person. 
 
I used to be so unaware of my surroundings and was generally a weird guy for no reason that is known to me, though I still retain some of my youth traits. I am still placing others before myself, and still dealing with my eating "disorder." I'm a lot more open than I once was, and generally I'm a much happier guy.
 
I am happy with the way I have matured over the last 5 years, and was wondering how the Giant Bomb community felt looking back at the last 5 years of their lives.

I got 5 years older  ^-^ 
 
At my age, it is just 5 more years closer to a retirement village.  I'll be still playing my games dammit. 
 
I am the same weight roughly.  I still have all of my hair, but there is more grey.  I still have the same job and live in the same house and town.  Steady as she goes.  The real changes would be seeing my daughters go from 9 & 11 to 14 & 16.  That is a big change.  Not as many movie/cartoon based games any more (except anime, that doesn't count).

I got taller.

I turn 15 in November.
 
I've gotten much more mature over the years and I've accepted the fact that I am a nerd.

"I've accepted the fact that I am a nerd. "

I've gained more knowledge and i'm taller.  Apart from that, nothing major has changed.

" This day five years ago i was starting my first year in 3d graphics and game design at college, and i was happy. Since then i have had to watch my mother-- who was the only person in my life i ever trusted or felt safe around-- die a slow painful death that caused her to slowly slip into and out of consciousness that started on my 18th birthday. She died a little over a  month later on October 25th. Since then i have been screwed out of my college diploma because of the school heads lieing to me about classes i needed to graduate, my father remarried my moms supposed best friend months after she died, i have had her rampaging screaming brat of kids move into my house and literally destroy it and my sanity one day at a time as i continue to slowly slip into a very serious case of depression that has caused me to literally pray every night to who/what ever will listen that i will die in my sleep and not wake up. I have zero prospects of getting a job, zero friends, zero .life, debt i will never get to pay off and i live in a house with people that seriously make me consider the pros and cons of life in prison and a few weeks of quiet before someone finds the bodies.   So i have been better. Glad things are going  good for you. "

Well, I turn 18 in November. I'd say I have started to talk less to people over the years. I have found my friends and I'm sticking to them.

He not busy being born is busy dying

Just change your named to SxE Phil.

  
 Over the last 5 years, my courage has increased slightly and my understanding might increase soon. On the other hand, I feel my knowledge and expression have significantly increased.

I was a dumb kid who knew little about the video game industry, but now I know lots thanks to Giantbomb and the people involved with it. Thanks, guys!

Too many years of watching pornography will finally takes it toll.

Five years is a long time to recount in a forum. Man, I feel like I have changed in the past week, never mind in the past five years. It is crazy to think about.

Five years ago, I was in 6th grade of elementary school and I was 10.  I was a kid who had few friends, but good ones.  I was kind of the clown of the class, even though I've come to realize that that was not really the case as people were laughing more at me then with me.  I was strange, really strange but life was great.  School was easy; we barely had any homework so I played video games and hung out with my two friends all the time after school.  We could goof off in school as nothing was hard and the projects were extremely easy and every Friday afternoon we got to do whatever we wanted.  Mainly, I'd bring my Nintendo DS to school and game with my friend or we'd play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Beyblades or some type of marble game cards in the school yard.
 
Since then, I've come to hate life and often wish it would end.  I have no friends anymore, school is hard and stressing as Hell and there are so many assignments to do every single day (I'm typing this even though I'm supposed to be finishing up on the conception part of some technology project).  Going to school is crap.  I hate having to wake up early in the morning, wear some stupid ass uniform every single weekday and handle being around all these other students all the time.  I hate having to ignore comments about my race (I'm one of the only 2 black guys in the entire school) every day.  Basically, I'm now extremely more introverted and have changed from enjoying life to absolutely hating it.
 
At least I have video games.  This sounds pathetic; but without them I wouldn't have a point in life.

"Too many years of watching pornography will finally takes it toll. "

I've just gotten less social, I don't like meeting new people and barely talk to anyone outside my close group of friends (who I've known forever) and my family. Also, i've gotten in extremly close contact with my feminine side, to the point where everyone now thinks i'm gay >_> and I've embraced my otakuness.

I got a new computer....and now I wear long pants....

My dick has gotten used more for fucking than masturbation.

Well, I'm 16 now. My musical tastes have changed, my body has changed, and the way I think has also changed.

i'm not sure if i have changed in the last five years. i started getting hair on my face and back. i think i've become a little more social with people.

Nothing. I now got a awesome laptop and became a lot better at photoshop. I am pretty much the same old me.

Definitely. Maturity is one thing but I also have become smoother and more witty; I think my intelligence has always been here though. Spending time here may not be the smartest choice but it certainly is a fun one ;)

5 years ago I was really social, now....not so much. I have no idea why, it just happened.

i am now a triple strip blackbelt in judo

" This sounds pathetic; but without them I wouldn't have a point in life. "

I've had chronic insomnia for the last 4 years or so.
 
It's been thrilling. Sometimes I see things which aren't there, sometimes I hear weird stuff, sometimes I wake up in places and forget how I got there. It's 6am and I'm still just fucking about online.
 
In a way, it's good, because I'm consistently relaxed, but it's sort of dumb because I can never go out, I'm always too tired.

I was younger and less aware of what was going on around me, now I just kill time with video games and T.V. and I'm kind of a waste of space. I always feel like a dumb ass but a lot of people always have it worst so I accepted those facts and I just go through each day serving no purpose and stealing air from other people. 

5 years ago I was 14. Since then I've become a man, and discovered drinking. It's been awesome.

Hmmm...
 
I've become much more of a console gamer (but that was since 360 was first released, really)
I read a lot more, I've read many more books in the last 5 years than I did for all the years previous
I've been more mentally stable
 
edit -
 
I can organize much thoughts much more clearly
I feel a lot more intelligent, I've absorbed more everyday knowledge (but that's been a bit more of a process in the last 10 years than 5)
I am much more organized environmentally, that is I'm not a slob in terms of leaving things laying around the house, I'm still a slob in other ways

used to be a stupid punk, I've matured out of that completely now, and I've become very healthy with a lot of cycling and other things.

To put it in simple numbers

3 cars

2 new addresses

1 wedding and

+30 pounds

I'm turning 16 really soon, so I've been thinking about this lately, too.
 
Over the past five years, I think I've changed a lot. I've gotten more social, on and off the internet, and stopped playing so many video games (though I still play them occasionally). I've discovered good music and started playing guitar and tuba. I've grown my hair out, and I feel like I have more of a personality now that I had back then.

I hit middle age, and the places that never used to hurt, now hurt and worse than that, those pains don't go away as fast any more.  They linger around reminding me that I am getting old.  On a more positive note, I met a lot of good people, made several new friends and enjoyed a great deal of games.  Could life be better, sure, but in comparison to where it was 5 years ago, despite the whole "old guy" thing, it's better than it has been in a good long time.  I've actually gotten more social even though my time spent gaming has also increased in that 5 year period.

I've become a caregiver in the last five years. My wife's health took a bad turn and since then "off and on" become progressively worse. I've done things that I never thought I could do or would do. I'm still lazy and play too many video games. That hasn't changed.

5 Years ago I was a serious jackass. 
Causing trouble in school, starting fights, got sent away from home and stuff like that.  
Now all that shit is gone, because I got some better friends and talked some stuff over with my family. 
 
Couldn't have done it without them tho', so if it wasn't for them I would have been an idiot still. 
Well more of an idiot than I already am :P

More hair on my chest, I'm getting a Sean Connery-esque rug.

" More hair on my chest, I'm getting a Sean Connery-esque rug. "

Yes, I care a lot less of what people think than say, a year ago. Five years ago, huge change. For example I used to go to church, I used to get bent, I used to play Starcraft a lot.

I guess i've learned over the past few years not to take shit from anybody and believe me that is a major step up from the silent push over I use to be.

I 've turned to the darkside and become batman....no I've learned to lighten up and not be such an ass all the time.

I really have no idea, I guess I'm still in the middle of the process of breaking free of my antisocial behaviour. I think I've come pretty far with that whole thing, and since I started to actually spend time with people a few years ago, I guess I've changed personally as well. All for the better from what I hear :). Although I myself still feel like I did 5 years ago, or at least I think I do.

Well i was 17... and look the same as i do now... just my hair is different cuz i changed my hair style.