Adolescence.

Awkward: the perfect word to describe myself during my adolescence.  everyone is said to go through an "awkward stage", and mine was definitely from the ages 11 to 14, the prime-time of my adolescent years.  i had braces, which i hated, and i gained weight, which was upsetting to me because i had gone through the first 10 years of my life being referred to as a "skinny minnie", being mainly skin and bones, able to eat whatever and whenever i wanted.  i still had a sufficiently slim face, but there was one thing that stuck out horribly: my nose.  i never noticed how terrible i thought my nose was until once i hit adolescence, mainly because until then, i didn't really care about what i looked like; i was, of course, only a little kid.  but one day i looked in the mirror and there it was, a mountain sticking out of my otherwise flat and small-featured face.  immediately i became insecure, hating when people looked at me from the side.  my nose even started affecting my breathing, causing me to have to use a paper bag to breathe in and out of constantly because it was hard for me to take deep breaths, let alone breathe through my nose.  once i hit the 6th grade, i was 12 years old and got the lead in my school musical, "the music man".  i was thrilled, but then again the insecurities starting pouring out: will my singing be right since it was difficult to breathe through my nose?  would i sound so nasally and cause people to laugh at me?  these were some of the many thoughts running through my mind.  nine times out of ten i'd be worried about what i looked and sounded like, and soon enough my parents started to notice.  however, they figured it was just a phase that i was going through, and i'd get over it eventually.  they were wrong.  as the years went on, my self-consciousness only became worse. i was even more worried about how i looked, considering i'd be going to high school soon, and i was extremely worried about my singing and breathing; singing was my favorite thing to do, and if i had to stop doing it because of my lousy nose, i'd be more than heartbroken.