Don’t you hate it when your laptop battery’s dying but you have to strain your oh-so-tired body and walk five hundred million miles (or so it seems) to get your charger from upstairs? Or when you get that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach after you find out that your parents are too rich for you to get financial aid for college?  Or worse, when you bite in to a chocolate chip cookie, and realize that it is in fact, oatmeal raisin?

These are what most people call first world problems. They are serious issues that plague our day to day lives, just as malaria plagues third world countries. We try to avoid them when we can, but just like malaria, we canít avoid them entirely.

They can’t afford mosquito nets. We can’t afford personal servants.

The term “first world problems” comes from the humble roots of the 1990s, back when life actually had a purpose and times were good. It was first seen in 1995 in a song by Matthew Good Band titled “Omissions of the Omen.”

From there, it would take sixteen years until this concept finally got public attention in late 2011 through Reddit and Twitter.

From there of course, the Internet did what the Internet does and  made spin-off trends such as “third world success,” which pokes fun at what success means in third world countries, comparing it to that in scumbag America, and pointing out out how ignorant Americans are.

While these issues have had their fifteen seconds in the spotlight, it’s time that we retire them. There’s a reason that respected news channels like CNN choose to focus more on international issues like Kim Jong-Ilís death. These issues are much more important, since North Korea practically has nuclear weapons pointed toward the USA ready to be fired anytime.

But when it gets down to the core of the issue, the only true first world problem weíre having is me writing a column about people making petty excuses.

#firstworldproblems.