What is University of Waterloo Student ID?

It is a side-by-side of Arman Alam's first-year and second-year University of Waterloo engineering student IDs, with the smiling first photo and the withered second photo used as a before/after template.

Where did University of Waterloo Student ID come from?

Alam, posting as @416naru, tweeted the comparison on July 31, 2022, and the tweet collected over 119,000 likes within two days before he deleted it.

What does University of Waterloo Student ID mean?

The two IDs stand for the gap between someone starting fresh and the same person worn down after a hard year, with Waterloo's engineering program as the original punchline.

How do you use University of Waterloo Student ID?

Posters typically use the two photos as a reaction to anything that drains a person, naming a specific job, major, or year that caused the change, or substituting other matched before/after faces like Seong Gi-hun's.

Is University of Waterloo Student ID still popular?

Reposts arrived through 2025, with @InternetH0F's follow-up on February 13, 2025 reaching over 218,000 likes.

University of Waterloo Student ID

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Published October 23, 2026

Arman Alam, a University of Waterloo engineering undergraduate, tweeted a side-by-side of his first-year and second-year student IDs on July 31, 2022, with the first photo showing him smiling and the second showing him looking withered. The tweet got over 119,000 likes before he deleted it, after which the picture came back as a before/after template on X, TikTok and Instagram, with new University of Waterloo Student ID versions arriving as late as February 2025.

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Overview

Alam's two IDs work as a template for before/after transformation posts, with the smiling first-year photo standing in for anyone's hopeful start and the withered second-year photo for whatever comes after a punishing stretch1. Captions typically name a specific drain, such as an engineering major or a demanding job, while the IDs carry the visual joke2. The side-by-side also sits next to other before and after faces online, including the Squid Game character Seong Gi-hun4.

TikTok

Later versions moved past Alam himself. On X, @InternetH0F stacked two different Waterloo student IDs that both looked burnt out, casting the school itself as the villain of the University of Waterloo Student ID format6. Reactions often come from TikTokers filming shocked expressions over the picture instead of adding new text on top3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter / X

Creator

Arman Alam

Date

2022

On July 31, 2022, X user @416naru, Arman Alam, posted a side-by-side of his University of Waterloo student IDs labeled '2nd year vs. 1st year'1. The first photo showed Alam grinning, while the second had him looking darkened and spent5. His card identified him as an engineering undergraduate, which turned the picture into a joke about what one year inside Waterloo's engineering program does to a person1. The tweet collected over 119,000 likes within two days before Alam deleted it5.

How It Spread

On April 8, 2023, X user @OvOBrezzzy reposted the original image with the caption 'LMAOOOOOO WTF they do to my boy,' collecting more than 154,000 likes over the next two years2. Three days later, TikToker @iamfivehead filmed a reaction to the tweet that got more than 11,200 likes3.

Reposts picked up again at the start of 2025. On January 1, Instagram user @yungbooks posted the original image and got over 12,000 likes within two months5. A week later, TikToker @princerai4017 cut the Waterloo IDs together with the Smiling and Unsmiling Seong Gi-hun format from Squid Game, hitting over 3,300 likes4.

On February 13, 2025, X user @InternetH0F posted two different Waterloo student ID comparisons side by side, with both students looking exhausted, captioning the image 'What the hell is Waterloo University doing to its students'6. That tweet reached over 218,000 likes within a month, extending the University of Waterloo Student ID joke past Alam himself to the school as a whole6.

Timeline

2022-07-31

Arman Alam (@416naru) tweets the side-by-side of his first-year and second-year University of Waterloo engineering IDs, racking up over 119,000 likes in two days[1].

2023-04-08

X user @OvOBrezzzy reposts the deleted image with the caption 'LMAOOOOOO WTF they do to my boy,' eventually passing 154,000 likes[2].

2023-04-11

TikToker @iamfivehead posts a reaction video to the tweet that gets more than 11,200 likes[3].

2025-01-01

Instagram user @yungbooks reposts the image and gets over 12,000 likes within two months[5].

2025-01-08

TikToker @princerai4017 remixes the IDs against the Smiling and Unsmiling Seong Gi-hun format from Squid Game[4].

2025-02-13

X user @InternetH0F posts two different Waterloo student ID comparisons with both students looking burnt out, hitting over 218,000 likes in a month[6].

How to Use This Meme

A typical University of Waterloo Student ID post places a first-year ID with a bright, hopeful face on the left and a second-year ID with a tired, darkened face on the right, with a caption blaming a specific school, program, job, or year of life1. Some creators substitute the IDs for other matched images, such as Seong Gi-hun's smiling and unsmiling Squid Game faces, so the before/after joke carries over to a different subject4.