We All Had An Awkward Phase (And It’s Totally Cool)

Unless your name is Kendall Jenner, you have ABSOLUTELY had an awkward phase at some point in your life.  Maybe it was that awful short haircut, those fat rolls that would have put Honey Boo Boo to shame, or your strange obsession with bell-bottom jeans, but it definitely happened.  Personally, I was that exceptionally tall girl who was rocking her Limited Too camouflage pants every chance she got (you know those ones that unzipped into capris or shorts? Stylish, I know).  Now before you start frantically flipping through old albums and lighting pictures on fire, hear me out on why having an awkward stage was actually a good thing.

Riddle me this, folks: does anyone actually like a person who peaks at age twelve?  What good is that, anyways?  Twelve-year-olds don’t have that much going for them.   They’re raking in about $10 a week in allowance, frolicking through the mall like it’s some sort of legitimate social scene, and three-way calling their besties (Wait… people don’t do that anymore? Is that not a thing?).  Regardless, at twelve years old, you don’t need to have your act together.   You can eat Big Macs in the food court and wear all the bell-bottom jeans your little heart desires because, truth be told, kids care too early about being cool and doing what everyone else is doing.

Now that I’m a whopping twenty-two years old, I’ve realized I have the rest of my life to be socially correct.  Should I really be kicking myself and trying to erase photo evidence of my childhood just to save myself from a little embarrassment?  I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not worth it.  For the most part, I can prove that I am now a normal functioning member of society, and isn’t that what matters?  I turned out alright!  So next time you want to travel back in time and slap some sense into your preteen self, just be thankful that your awkward phase happened when it did.   You have the rest of your life to be cool now that you’ve mastered it, so just pay some respect to the time in your life when you were still trying to figure out what the definition of “cool” actually was.  Not everyone can be Kendall Jenner, you know.  She just figured out something the rest of the world doesn’t know yet.