I would love to have just 5 minutes to talk with the 10 year old Joel.
This is what I would tell him: You won't always be awkwardly skinny or have big ugly glasses and you won't always have bad hair. You won't always want to be alone and you aren't the only boy who likes other boys. One day you will be able to cry again and know that childhood fades away into time. Blue and orange is not an appropriate color combination, you can't choose your family but you sure can choose your friends, and even though you hate flip flops right now... there will come a day that you will want to wear them everyday and everywhere. To my 10 year old self, a couple other little things: Silver not gold, titanium not platinum, light blue looks great with your skin, don't ever pick up a bottle of Bacardi 151, don't stop running, keeping playing the piano, avoid anyone named Brian, and finally Taco Bell is a gift from God... don't you EVER feel bad about stuffing your face at 2 in the morning!!!