Your parents were your age once, making the same dumb mistakes. Ask them about it; they’ll become real people.

Adults in your life mostly appear as finished products, which makes their advice sound like it came from someone who never struggled. They were seventeen once, with the same fear of being left out and the same poor judgment about who to trust. Hearing the details turns them from an authority into a person who also went through it.

Ask about a specific failure instead of asking for general advice. What did you get in trouble for. Who broke your heart. The answers make every later conversation easier, because you will be talking to somebody real rather than a role.