Never been in a relationship, Don’t have a social life at 21. Am I behind in life?

2 weeks ago 14

I am 21F. I moved to a new city last year for school after living in my small hometown almost my entire life. It took me a while to gain the independence to go out into the world on my own. I’ve always been independent in some way in my life, but this was really the big move for me. My hometown never felt like the right place for me. I always felt left out and it just never really truly felt like home. This really took a toll on me as I got into my teen years. I started to internalize the things that other people would say about me. It made it difficult for me to leave my hometown because I felt like anywhere I’d go, people would just treat me the same. I’m now 21 and after going through a major healing period, I’m able to see now that it was never me, I was just in the wrong environment. I’m so much more confident in myself and I’ve been having fun exploring a new big city on my own, although creating a social life has been difficult. I guess the thought pattern I keep getting stuck in is this idea that I’m behind. A lot of people my age have done all the partying, dating etc. and I’m just getting into it. I never really felt bad about not doing these things at the time because I wasn’t in a good mental space so it was the least of my worries. But now, I worry about other people judging me for not having done these things already. This stems from a conversation I had with my hometown friends. I hadn’t really felt like I was behind before they brought up my lack of a dating life. I know that this probably sounds so dramatic, but I’m just really in my head. I don’t want to go out in the world and feel judged. Am I really that behind for starting/ getting back into these things now? Can I look forward to my 20s being a fun time even though I missed out on my teen years? (To be clear, my social life has not always been like this. Only for the last two years being 19 and 20.)

I appreciate anyone reading this.

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