Every time Facebook rolls out a new layout or update, the world goes crazy — mostly with comments of dislike.

When Facebook rolled out Timeline, most people said they hated it and they would much rather keep the old layout.

I, for one, could not wait until Timeline was available to all users and updated mine as soon as I had time to clean up my privacy settings and make sure nothing unsavory was highlighted.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the old Facebook was that it would take me forever to look through all of the posts on my wall. I would have to scroll and scroll and scroll to be able to get to things that were posted on my wall the month before. Now, if I want to look at a post or a picture from 2005, I can click on that time period in the timeline and it will take me there quickly.

I really appreciate that you can decide to feature certain posts in your timeline. I like to highlight pictures I really like or really funny videos/links my friends have posted on my wall. I like that I can curate my own Facebook history in the way that I want others to see it. If there are things I don’t necessarily want people to see upfront, I can hide them.

It also is the first time in Facebook history where you’re able to showcase your creative side within your profile.

Now that you can add a cover photo (that large picture across the top), it lets your friends see more of your creativity. Whether you want your cover picture to be artistic, snarky or cute, it’s a fun setting to play with. I love seeing what my friends have chosen as their cover pictures, as it gives you a really interesting view into his or her personality.

While I know there are many great aspects about Facebook Timeline, there are some drawbacks as well. Something you’ll need to be especially conscious of is your privacy settings. I was shocked by how much of my information would have been out there had I not double checked all of my settings.

If you’re going to be searching for a job soon, you’ll probably want to go through your pictures and make sure nothing horrible is out there. Now that employers will be able to look through your entire history of Facebook activity more easily, it will make those drunken pictures easier to find. Something I’ve found that helps is changing your tagged photo privacy to private so that only you can see the pictures you’re tagged in.

Since Facebook is making the change mandatory within the next few weeks for all users, why not jump ahead of the curve and get everything organized in advance? You have a whole seven days before your timeline will become public once you decide to sign up for it, so you can take your time to look through your profile before anyone else’s eyeballs see it.

Time to gear up and face the inevitable!