We all have them: those embarassing photographs from our pre-teen years, the ones that we once thought were captured proofs that we were the cutest beings, but we now look at with pure cringe and sheer shame. These moments have been forever immortalized into pictures that will forever haunt us and frankly, I am perfectly okay with that.

I know of many people who refuse to acknoweldge their awkward pre-pubescent years. These are the same people who at one point in their life lip synched to Justin Bieber, felt the need to videotape it, and then had the courage to post it on say, Facebook. These are the same people who felt the need to edit their pictures in a rainbow schemae and then caption on the photo "peace out girl scout" in an overly bejeweled font. These are the people who thought they were such rebels because they listened to Evanescence and their eyeliner was not dark enough unless they resembled a raccoon. And these are the same people who would post morbidly vague statuses on myspace and acknowledged their best friend's cuteness by "owning" a picture. No matter how embarassing these moments are, I don't think there's any reason to be ashamed of them.

This was our childhood. All of these memories are a part of us and at the time of their conception, it was what was familiar to us. It was an experience every one of us went through and thus, there is absolutely no reason to feel any sort of embarassment about it. If anything, it gives us stories to reminisce about now and bond as a generation even more on the things we once considered cool. You can try and delete all of these pictures from your albums, but that doesn't erase the experience. It still happened. So, why not keep those pictures so you can look back on them one day and laugh about the fads of that time? Those moments have essentially shaped who you are in some shape or form and in choosing to neglect them or to forget about, I think you are depriving yourself of the positive memories and the laughable trends of that time. If you don't believe me, log into your myspace (assuming you still remember your password) and go through your profile. I promise you, if you're having a bad day, it will make you laugh like you wouldn't believe. And you'll finally come to realize that those embarassing moments that you try so hard to forget have a purpose.