A brief history of Paxtonia

This challenge was... well... challenging. Turns out I'm very boring and almost never change. I've been wearing baggy T-shirts, cargo trousers and hillwalking boots since I was about 14. I've dredged up the past anyway though.

Age 9: The 'lovable scamp' phase. I've always been a 'function over fashion' kind of guy, but when I was young this mantra was taken to something of an extreme. I spent most of my time in garishly coloured jogging bottoms and strange, bright T-shirts. My excuse is that it was the 90s and that this kind of thing was practically encouraged. At 9 I was quiet and shy, but confident that when I hit ten I was going to receive my starter Pokémon from Professor Oak, leave Midgar, and travel across wonderful lands battling everyone and everything before saving The Planet from the evil clutches of either Sephiroth or the Elite Four, I forget which.

Age 15: The 'accidental goth' phase. Disillusioned by a complete absence of the fantastical adventures I'd hoped for as a child, I had grown into a depressing cliché of a teenager. I grew my hair because I didn't like hairdressers, and got a pair of steel-toe-capped boots for a school trip where sturdy footwear was required. Like I said before, I've always picked clothes that were comfortable over any kind of aesthetic reasoning, and it just so happened that at this time, the comfiest clothes I owned were pretty much all black. Then I wondered why all the neds picked on me for being a goth. I guess I was too busy writing 'witty' blog posts on my msn space and being ignored by girls to notice what I'd done to myself...

Age 21: Present day, although my current look is not particularly new. I still regularly wear some of the clothes I was wearing when I was 17... I now always carry my rucksack with me, which is big enough to go on holiday for a week with, but usually is just filled with sketchbooks and art materials. This, combined with spending my days hunched over a light box, has left me with a posture even poorer than it was in my youth. I'm fairly confident that by the time I'm thirty I'll be curled round into myself, and I'll just roll everywhere like Sonic the hedgehog.