Ask your grandparents what scared them at your age. It’s a history class no textbook can give you.

Older people are usually presented to you as finished, which hides the fact that they were once exactly where you are, with their own version of not knowing how any of it would turn out. Hearing what frightened them at your age does two things. It makes the history real, and it quietly tells you that what you are carrying is survivable, because someone in front of you carried a version of it.

If you have someone like that in reach, ask them once and let it be slow. If you do not, older neighbors, coworkers and family friends have the same stories and are rarely asked.