Feeling lost in your 20’s

[Princess of Scots]

I know the feeling so much. I'm 22 soon and this week should have been my graduation. It's so tough seeing everyone graduate and thinking that I should be doing the same.

I started uni straight after I left school 4 years ago but I dropped out due to mental health problems. I'm now only going back to college to do an HND in September. I am four years behind everyone my age. I feel like I've wasted time and that I really should have finished with my studies, let alone just be starting them.

It's tough because everyone I went to school with seems so further ahead with their lives than I am. They're graduating, getting well paid jobs, getting their own flats and pets with partners and travelling all over the world. I'm here, biding my time working in a call centre until I start college.

I feel like I've missed the boat for everything. I've done everything the wrong way around. I've never had a relationship. I won't graduate from my Bachelor's until I'm almost 26.
I never had the chance to travel because I've held down a full time job and covid got in the way too. I won't be able to move out because I'll be a full time student and only have part time wages and my bursary coming through. I need to watch my spending because I'm taking a pretty substantial drop in income so I just can't have all these experiences.

I just feel like I've got it all wrong.

 

[candyland_]

I know the feeling so much. I'm 22 soon and this week should have been my graduation. It's so tough seeing everyone graduate and thinking that I should be doing the same.

I started uni straight after I left school 4 years ago but I dropped out due to mental health problems. I'm now only going back to college to do an HND in September. I am four years behind everyone my age. I feel like I've wasted time and that I really should have finished with my studies, let alone just be starting them.

It's tough because everyone I went to school with seems so further ahead with their lives than I am. They're graduating, getting well paid jobs, getting their own flats and pets with partners and travelling all over the world. I'm here, biding my time working in a call centre until I start college.

I feel like I've missed the boat for everything. I've done everything the wrong way around. I've never had a relationship. I won't graduate from my Bachelor's until I'm almost 26.
I never had the chance to travel because I've held down a full time job and covid got in the way too. I won't be able to move out because I'll be a full time student and only have part time wages and my bursary coming through. I need to watch my spending because I'm taking a pretty substantial drop in income so I just can't have all these experiences.

I just feel like I've got it all wrong.

22 is ridiculously young still. I wouldn’t worry about it.

 

[btw]

I know the feeling so much. I'm 22 soon and this week should have been my graduation. It's so tough seeing everyone graduate and thinking that I should be doing the same.

I started uni straight after I left school 4 years ago but I dropped out due to mental health problems. I'm now only going back to college to do an HND in September. I am four years behind everyone my age. I feel like I've wasted time and that I really should have finished with my studies, let alone just be starting them.

It's tough because everyone I went to school with seems so further ahead with their lives than I am. They're graduating, getting well paid jobs, getting their own flats and pets with partners and travelling all over the world. I'm here, biding my time working in a call centre until I start college.

I feel like I've missed the boat for everything. I've done everything the wrong way around. I've never had a relationship. I won't graduate from my Bachelor's until I'm almost 26.
I never had the chance to travel because I've held down a full time job and covid got in the way too. I won't be able to move out because I'll be a full time student and only have part time wages and my bursary coming through. I need to watch my spending because I'm taking a pretty substantial drop in income so I just can't have all these experiences.

I just feel like I've got it all wrong.

I feel you, I really do! Lots of people say your still young and we know in the grand scheme of life we are still very young. But it doesn’t stop you from feeling so out of place! I think your 20’s are just a tricky age as everyone is at different paces in life and it’s so hard to not compare yourself to others. Since creating this thread, nothing for me has improved. I’m still job searching, still living at home and still single. It’s hard to remain positive and optimistic but I promise you it will all fall into place one day! It hasn’t happened for me yet , but it will one day!
I try to think that everything happens for a reason. Maybe the reason you will be graduating ‘later’ then others is because at the time when others were at university, you were dealing with other things in your life or figuring out what you wanted to do! But ultimately that time wasn’t wasted because it lead you to make the decision to return to education! At the time things might not make sense but one day we’ll look back and realise it does work out. Sending love to you because I know how isolating and lonely it can be! X

 

[On A Roll]

I feel the same! I’m 24 and I’ve been working full time since I left sixth form, didn’t go to Uni. I’ve been able to progress in my career quite fast so I seem ‘ahead’ of people job wise because of my position, but I’ve always found it so hard not having the same free time as my friends who were at Uni. They wanted to go out and stay late whereas I needed to go to bed because of work so strange. Now that my friends are graduated and getting full time jobs I feel a bit more settled.

I think it’s just such a weird feeling because in school, everyone goes through life and the same things at the same time, but after school it’s such a change in routine and it can go so many ways. So hard not to compare myself to others - I know I wouldn’t have enjoyed Uni but I can’t help but think what my life would’ve been like if I did go.

I also found myself always thinking about the future and recently I’ve been trying to appreciate the present - I live in my favourite city, I have a dog (my favourite ever animal), I have a healthy stable relationship. Might not have savings or my own house or £££ or a million friends but I have a lot to be thankful for

 

[PineappleTopper]

You can tick all of the boxes and youll still feel you need more.because society pushes us to. Unhappiness fuels spending.

I would only add to what the folks have said before and say that your 20s should be a time for making memories and makimg mistakes. You still have your 30s to sort things out and get yourself to where you want to be.

Your 20s are about having fun. It might seem that everyone is in a rush to get their lives together and be seen as a success. id say this only intensifies in your 30s. People start to drift apart as their lives diverge so much more.

Enjoy your 20s and dont let the expectation of others push you. You are only in competition with yourself at the end of the day. X