The awkward kid you used to be did the hard, unglamorous work of getting you here. Give them some credit.

The version of you that makes you wince was the one doing the actual work, with no idea how any of it would turn out. Every skill and instinct you lean on now was assembled back then, in the dark, by somebody with far less to go on. Embarrassment is a strange way to repay that.

When an old memory makes you flinch, add in what that person was managing at the time. Give them the allowance you would hand a friend without thinking. They earned it, and they are the reason you have anything to be picky about.