Haha, I feel you caty. I got braces my senior year of high school. Not only did I swallow wax, but I did everything you were not supposed to do (i.e. chewing ice and gum). Apparently I have too much of an oral fixation for real dental work (all you psych students know what I'm talking about). That earned me a lot of visits to the ortho to fix broken wires and stuff. I still could not seem to learn my lesson though.
After breaking both my top and bottom retainer, dealing with an impacted incisor, and extracting my wisdom teeth two weeks ago, I'm finally done with everything after five years. You will be too, pretty soon, it just sucks right now. I've found that getting them off is the worst part, particularly if the tips of your teeth are still grooved from them coming in. However, it's smooth sailing from there.