Living Independently at 17

I went into my drafts today because I had to save and come back to a post and while I was in there I found this draft from 24 Dec 2021 when I was living as an emancipated minor. The original title was "too much to manage":

"I just finished my third semester of community college and transferred to a 4 year university to start in January. I moved out into my own apartment about a week ago. I usually work part-time but have been working 7 hours a day since winter break. I don’t have a car and never learned how to drive so I rely on my city buses to get around. I am fully responsible for paying my own bills although some of my family members help me out with buying furniture and appliances for my home. For the most part I have been civilly emancipated as my state does not have an in court process. I have a long term partner who is living with me over the college break but he goes to college in colorado. His friends think he broke up with me months ago and he won’t tell them. I am basically paying all of his expenses while he lives with me because while I am able to pay my way through college (adoptive father died, inheritance) he has essentially nothing of his own and no parental support. I’m really hurt by him lying to everyone especially because that means I’ll never be able to visit him over breaks. He says I’d be a burden to his potential roommates. It all just feels like too much. I know I’m an adult trying to handle real life and he’s helped me out a lot with housework but I feel like this is all too much. I missed the bus today and couldn’t figure out uber so I lost $17 and was 40 minutes late to work. I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep things together let alone address my mental health when I feel like everything is resting on me."

Some of this is pretty specific to my life but it struck me how much of this is probably relatable to other emancipated minors. It was so hard managing day-to-day stuff and relationship issues while trying to find a path in life by myself. I can also look back at this and see how little I was valuing myself by staying in a relationship where I wasn't acknowledged or respected.

I am really glad I was able to make it through and am now almost 4 years removed from this situation. If you relate to this, hopefully it's helpful for you to see that someone else has gone through that feeling of being overwhelmed but was eventually able to reach a point of stability.