Isotope I'm sorry to hear you're not happy with how your teeth look now! For me braces were definitely a positive change, mine were coming out in absolutely crazy places due to the crowding, and were difficult to brush. My mum had to take on 2 jobs to pay for them, I owe her so much for that.
Is it possible that you don't like them because they sort of seem bigger than before, like big horse teeth-ish? I vaguely remember mine feeling like that at first, because the metal in the middle kind of broke up my perception of tooth-size, and when the braces came off all of a sudden there were these two huge front teeth... it took some while getting used to, but now I absolutely love 'em. What I
didn't get used to was having the permanent wire retainer at the back of my bottom front teeth. No-one told me part of my braces would be permanently there before I got them or at any time while I had them on, so I was upset to still have a wire in my mouth. Although it wasn't visible, I hadn't been able to feel the back of my teeth with my tongue for the years I'd had braces, and it really bothered me that I'd never feel it again without there being wire and waxy stuff in the way. So about a year ago I made the decision to have this removed, against the advice of my orthodontist (although my dentist felt it would help with cleaning).
existential_squirrrel wrote:my eyebrows are bushy beyond all reason, my tweezers broke in half (I'm not sure how the hell that happened)

Are your eyebrows bushy, or are we talking a forest of ents here?!
Just kidding, they sound like some pretty shoddy (or old?) tweezers though... and HUGE congrats on those academic successes! All the best for your shit-ton of exams, it sounds like you've got the smarts and work ethic to come out OK though!