Embrace your cringe phase...or lose yourself

I was never really ashamed of my cringe phase before I met my partners.

I would sometimes even fondly scroll through my old anime account on Instagram (@anime.with.a.smile with the nyan cat pfp) to see just how much I've improved on editing and English. Because yes, when I started this account I was on a school trip in Italy and I was still in 4ème (Grade 8/Year 9/ 13yo). I had been learning English for about two years, and you can see I was still not perfect lol

But it's heartwarming to see how far I've come. And the type of posts on it truly were what you'd find on anime spaces at the time (mostly Facebook and Insta). Similarly, I found an old attempt of blog not so long ago, dating back from before I turned 16 (so three years after the Instagram account) and I hundred percent forget it existed because well... life at home became very difficult at that time. And blogging was hard on that website (here) but mostly, I think, because I had fallen into the world of rp that I did mostly on Instagram.

And there too, sometimes I search for old rp partners I recall the usernames of. And each time, I get embarrassed but also endeared. I have so many special memories tied to these deleted or inactive accounts.

So I truly think that by rejecting one's "cringe" phase, it's not so different from rejecting who you were before you became what you are today. Isn't the goal of loving yourself that of embracing every part of you, including those from your years spent trying to define yourself?