The years between sixth grade and ninth grade can be quite disturbing to reflect on. What were you thinking? Did you even turn on the lights when getting dressed?

My sixth grade attire consisted of large basketball shorts, tight polos, and skateboarding shoes. Of course my hair was tied in an unbrushed bun, which eerily looked like a rodent on the top of my head (or according to my grandmom, a doorknob). Either way, it was far from stylish. Luckily, I escaped that phase, only to enter my emo stage. In seventh grade I was probably close to 100 pounds, if even, and maybe 5’0’’. But in my mind I had the body of a 24-year-old super model. I mean, why not wear dark clothes to emphasize the curves I didn’t have. And why not throw on five pounds of raccoon eyeliner and foundation that was about three shades too dark. This was the year I realized how smart I was, and how I didn’t need my parents. Because at 12-years-old, I was full grown and if they didn’t buy me the new razor phone I was fully prepared to run away from my oppressed life at home.

Could it really get any worse than this? I found out the answer was a giant YES during eighth grade, probably when I made my phone background pictures of myself. But that’s not the bad part. The bad part is I would rotate the pictures, but they were all from my photo shoot I had in my cousins bedroom, with my overdone make up, random bow in my hair, and glasses. Keep in mind I’ve had 20/20 vision my whole life- I was just going for a cute schoolgirl look. And why smile when I can open-mouth pucker my lips and raise my eyebrows? Who wouldn’t think this was a cute look?

From having your first hug to petty drama as to who wasn’t invited to an uncomfortable basement dance party, our awkward stages can definitely put a smile on our faces now. Everyone wants to erase their horribly edited pictures from middle school, but at some point of our lives, this made us feel confident. This period of our lives helped us discover ourselves; we had this sense of freedom that allowed us to experiment with our interests, unfortunately sometimes going too far. We all have good stories about our pre-teen days, but luckily we’ve grown so much since then. It was probably the only time in our life we could have any style and no one would really comment. When I decided to give myself world’s most uneven hair cut, my friends complimented me, they saw it as a sign of maturity. If I wore my sixth grade outfits around campus now, no one would believe I owned any clothes other than my brothers- or a hairbrush.

Everyone’s awkward stage varies; it makes our stories so unique! If you can look back on these years and not want to erase your own memory, you are a very lucky minority. But for the rest of us who colored our hair with highlighters and painted our nails with sharpie -- we need to embrace our weirdness! This phase gave us confidence and character. I made some of my best friends during my awkward stage, and if these people know you at your lowest and STILL want to be your friend, there aren’t many other barriers to break.

Embrace these memories, it was one of the few times we were confident and didn’t think twice about what others thought. So next time you see an old family picture with a mouth full of metal and poorly covered pimples, remember how great you felt, and don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself because you definitely aren’t the only person with wardrobe regrets!