Does anyone else feel guilty because their peers success more?
So I recently turned 18, I went on insta today and so many people who I know (my age) have posted on their stories about being accepted into uni. Growing up I had a very different experience to all of my friends, I grew up with my dad not really around that much, my mum on benefits and I don’t really have anyone in my family who I have a good relationship with. I grew up seeing all of my friends have loving together families and the ones whose parents weren’t together had amazing step dads. I used to be so jealous and then just accepted that it’s my parents fault, it’s them who didn’t love me and my mum who wouldn’t go get a job and get off the dole. Anyway. I feel guilty because i genuinely couldn’t get into uni if i wanted to. I have 2 GCSE’s (English lit and maths), a level 2 qualification in childcare and less than a years experience working at a domino’s. It makes me feel guilty because it’s my fault. I used to skip school so much during year 9 and 10, and we had lockdown for pretty much all of year 7, I’ve been realising over the past year that my life will always be bad, I’m not clever, I’ll probably always make minimum wage, I probably won’t have a family once I move out of my mums and one day, I’ll be 30 something, looking on Facebook and seeing everyone I went to school with doing so much better than I ever will. I keep thinking about maybe getting a different job and going back to college full time, but then I’d have to work nights or pay extra for nighttime college classes, I’d always wanted to be a primary school teacher but now it just seems like it’s all a massive waste of money and no matter what I do, they’ll always have it better than me.
Posted Aug 14, 2026, 12:39 AM UTC