How do you stop grieving the world you grew up in?

I don’t even mean just missing being a kid or not having responsibilities. I know childhood is obviously going to feel easier when you look back on it. But I feel like the actual world I grew up in was so different from the one I’m an adult in now.

And I know people who were already adults back then who say the same thing, so I don’t think it’s entirely just me looking at my childhood through rose-colored glasses.

When I was growing up, adulthood seemed like something to actually look forward to. The adults around me were just… living their lives. Going out, having friends, getting their own places, starting families, traveling, buying things without everything feeling like some massive financial decision.

Obviously they had problems too and I probably didn’t see most of them, but life just seemed more normal? More hopeful? I don’t really know how to explain it.

I remember being genuinely excited to grow up and have a life of my own. And now that I’m actually in my 20s, I feel like the adulthood I spent my whole childhood imagining just doesn’t exist anymore.

The weirdest part is that when I think about growing up, it almost doesn’t even feel like my own past anymore. It feels like some fantasy life I had, or a dream I woke up from. Like that world never actually existed and I was just suddenly dropped into whatever this is….

And I know every generation probably feels some version of this. I know nostalgia is powerful and that I’m probably idealizing certain things. But knowing that logically doesn’t really make the feeling go away.

I just feel down about it a lot. Like I’m grieving something I can’t get back, while also feeling like I never really got the chance to have the future I was looking forward to.

how do you deal with it without constantly comparing your life now to the world you remember?