You know the drill. You stumble across some old pictures of your tween years and want to gag. You went through an awkward stage where you wore feathers or clip-on rainbow hair extensions. You recall when you crushed hard on Cole Sprouse when he was on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Why did we wear Heelys in public? Why did we think Silly Bands were a must-have fashion choice?

On a personal note, why did I dress up like Darth Vader for Halloween in 6th grade?

A lot of things we did when we were younger… they’re downright cringeworthy. But you know what? The reason we cringe at our former selves is because we’ve grown since then. Our tastes have matured. We’ve learned better methods, adopted higher standards.

Even some things we do in our Best Years Ever will cause us to want to slap ourselves in a few years. Sure, we wrote a book back in 2010… but by 2019 we look back on it and laugh about our immature writing skills. Why? Because we know better now.

Is there a way to avoid future cringe-worthy day-to-day choices and activities? Nope. At the time, we’re doing them because we’re simply enjoying our lives.

So live in the moment. Stand by your choices and be true to yourself. Who cares if you’ll find a picture of your 2019 awkward phase someday and cringe? If you don’t look back and cringe, you’re not growing, my friend.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

What cringe-worthy awkward stage moment keeps you up at night to this day? Let’s embrace our awkward pasts, because what can we do to change it? Nothing! 😛

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀