Looking at old photos of your parents as teenagers is the fastest perspective check there is.

Parents arrive in your life already finished, so it is easy to forget they were once as unformed as you are. A photograph undoes that. The posture, the bad jacket, the nervousness at the edge of the smile: all of it says they were guessing too.

Find one picture of a parent or guardian around your age and ask what they were worried about that year. Most will tell you more than you expect. It is hard to stay furious at someone you can picture at sixteen.