I used to be an angry person.

There’s no other word to describe it. Even little things used to get me down. Over thinking things didn’t help, and resulted in a depressive attitude.

All this peaked at the end of my sophomore year. Needless to say, it was a stressful time, and I don’t ever want to go back to it. Even reflecting back on it is uncomfortable.

This summer, however, everything changed. I made the conscious decision to leave it all behind and start fresh; to not be angry anymore.

It would be wrong to say that there was one defining moment when this happened, because it had more to do with thinking things through over the few months of summer’s peace and quiet.

I realized that stress is something that piles up. Obviously, high school is a time when emotions run high. Everyone is anxious and wants to do well.

Nothing is worse than being alone in this situation. Thankfully, I’ve always had friends and adults whom I can trust. I can’t imagine how much worse things might’ve turned out if I hadn’t.

So I came up with a way to cope with those situations when you feel angry: calm down, reassess the situation, and eliminate negativity.

There it is: Ayush’s five-second-long anger management course, free of charge! Scratch that; you can repay me by making the pledge to recycle. Or with doughnuts.

I know what you’re thinking: that when you’re in the heat of the moment, it’s hard to think about anything else. Trust me, if you stick with a plan that works for you, it will apply to all situations, no matter how bad they are.

Of course, bad habits don’t just disappear overnight. Even this year, I’ve felt those moments, moments when I just wanted to kick something.

One of those moments happened in biology class, and, in retrospect, it’s a pretty funny one. I was doing a lab with my group, and we weren’t getting the results that we were expecting on one of the trials. I was about to curse and give up when I used my own theory. I calmed down, reassessed the situation, and got rid of negativity.

I realized that we were just doing a biology lab. With chicken liver and hydrogen peroxide. We were doing it for a grade, not to make a Nobel Prize-winning discovery. We weren’t finding the cure for AIDS. No need to panic. Nobody would remember it in a couple of years. It didn’t even matter if we were making an error, so long as the other trials were correct.

I shook off all negative thoughts. Suddenly, chicken liver became much more fun.

To avoid sounding like one of those horrific advice columns written by college students with too much time on their hands, I must say that none of this has to be compatible with you. Some other method of anger management might work better for you – do what you have to.

It all comes down to this: There’s no place for pointless anger in life. It just leads to problems that could potentially become severe later in life. No matter how deep in the mud you get, it is never too late to pull yourself out.