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As a teenager, I got in the habit of posting deeply personal prose and diary-like entries to my blog. I often disabled comments because I wasn't interested in who actually saw it or getting any kind of feedback. I'm still not entirely sure why I saw it as so important but it still offers me comfort.

At the time, I considered my posts angsty when, in fact, I was dealing with some pretty intense shit. As teenagers we're fed this word, "angst," to explain away why we react so strongly to life.

When I was a child, I would get very very upset. Then, older people would tell me jokes and try to get me to laugh. This made me more upset, especially if it worked.

As an adult, I still struggle with discerning between problems that are hard and problems that are trivial. I also struggle with knowing when it's appropriate to laugh and take ourselves with a grain of salt and when it's appropriate to react strongly.

I am tempted to write "As a young adult," but I think that's another qualification that is used to try and make us see how the problems we confront are not as serious as we perceive them.

I think that problems are exactly as serious as we perceive them. I also think it is important to remember that we are just one person in the world with one set of experiences, no matter our age.

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