Ask your grandparents what scared them at your age. You’ll take their advice a lot more seriously after.

Fear is the part of the story that never gets told to the grandchildren. What you usually hear is the outcome: the job, the move, the marriage, all of it sounding inevitable in hindsight. Ask what they were frightened of at sixteen and the whole thing rearranges, because it turns out they were guessing too, with less information and fewer options than you have. Advice from somebody who was once uncertain lands completely differently.

Ask the question directly the next time you see them. What scared you at my age, and what did you do about it. Then sit through the long answer without steering it.