Our past selves are embarrassing.

I can’t keep track of how many things I’ve done or said that I wouldn’t imagine doing or saying today.

The scary thing is that we’ll almost inevitably look back on our present selves in the same way.

I thought my high school self was immature and clueless when I got to college. I thought the same looking back at my college self after graduating. And now I cringe at some of the things I did and said just years, or even months ago. There’s no reason to believe the train stops here.

In some ways, this realization can be debilitating. Knowing that I’ll continue to learn and grow, there’s a case to be made for holding my tongue. At least I’d keep myself from saying something stupid, right?

But I don’t think that’s the point.

When I look back at some of my early posts on this blog, now almost three years ago, I cringe. The tone, delivery, and even content doesn’t match what I’d want to put out today.

But that doesn’t mean that I regret what I said back then. Or that those posts weren’t valuable for anyone. It just means that I’ve changed.

As long as my works represents the best that I could’ve done at the time, I’m happy about it. And I think most reasonable people intuitively understand this process.

It’s why we don’t ridicule a school kid for their lack of understanding physics, or why we don’t fire the intern who thinks they understand how business works. They might not understand some things as well as us, but there’s still plenty that they can bring to the table.

So when we’re taking a stance, I think it’s important to remember that we don’t know everything. But at the same time, to realize that we don’t need to “have it all figured out” to share what we have to offer.

Because that day will never come.

-Brandon