I can't speak to your exact situation but I'll tell you a secret, grown-ups don't know how to deal with grown up problems. It's mostly just fighting to survive and figuring out how to deal with the next most urgent problem.
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I don't know how much "childhood" anyone is supposed to get. I think different people get different amounts.
If you got to 17 without experiencing severe trauma, you're pretty lucky. There are plenty of people who didn't need COVID to screw up their youth.
last years of uni, then who knows maybe i'll have to start working
Maybe? Hell, you still seem pretty damn lucky if you can say maybe.
I graduated decades before college, and there was absolutely no question that I had to get a job and start working. My daughter graduated college in January, and within a month she was working and responsible for her life.
So, that's the prick's point of view: You got 17 years. Be grateful for that and move on. Do what you need to do to get over it. You're an adult. Be one.
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If it makes you feel any better there is a phrase that "youth is wasted on the young". You can be "youthful" for a long time afterwards. My early 20s were the same as yours (a long time before anyone had heard of covid), and I felt similar to you, but by my mid 20s I had realised that my age was only a number and I could still have a word time if I wanted and the only thing stopping me was myself. That was freeing and the years have only got better since - lots of challenges too for sure but can look back and say my early 20s were some of the worst years now. I am an anti-capitalist now though!
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Wait til your 4th or 5th "once in a lifetime" event. It tends to speed up as you get older just like time does. My son had it pretty bad. He was in kindergarten that year and struggled with it. Got held back with a lot of other students and is still struggling to read. By the time it hit, I was already jaded and ready for the collapse that never came. And guess what? I was told I was "essential" and I had to keep going to work throughout. Don't dwell on it, remember the things you learned, because your next "once in a lifetime" could be right around the corner.
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This is literally my life. Same age. Same shit.
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Experiences vary, but I can tell you the best parts of my life have been since my mid-thirties. I was too dumb in my twenties and mostly went wherever the wind blew. Once I knew myself well enough to work toward goals that were actually meaningful to me, life got a lot better.
Now I've largely achieved them. Some brought lasting rewards, others were ephemeral, and still others didn't turn out the way I expected, but overall I feel pretty good about life.
So don't sell life short by imagining the brief period where you can enjoy both agency and minimal responsibility is automatically the best part of it.
That doesn't really address your core concern, which is the feeling that part of your transition into adulthood got scrambled by Covid. I just don't think it robbed you of your chance at a meaningful or fulfilling life the way it can sometimes feel in your early twenties.
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I lost my teenage years to a mental health episode and then lost a lot of my progress and recovery due to covid, having to stop working on certain things, and loosing access to my therapist.
🫂 its rough feeling like you missed an integral chapter of life and development. Sending love, my friend
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