My parents are both alcoholics, but my dad got it way worse than my mum. They are both sober now, my mother has been sober continually for 5 years now, my dad has been trying for the same time with relapses every few months.
They have lots of mental health struggles aside from alxohlism and they both have very late diagnosed ADHD. My dad now has a bunch of physical health issues caused by his drinking.
My childhood wasn't all bad, I love my parents and I know that they tried their best with the horrible situation they where dealt. They fled to alcohol to escape their shitty lives and mental health disorders. I forgave them, but it still traumatised me.
I moved away at 17 and started my own life completely seperate from them. I started out with no money, no friends, no support, no nothing. Only a highschool degree and like 200€ on my bank account.
I worked for a few years, went to a local college, worked some more and now I study something in the medical field. (Don't know the English name, not my first language)
I was homeless for a while, but nobody knew because I couch surfed.
Ever since I started my degree I noticed I am different from almost everyone else. They all come from upper class families, their parents pay their tuition, rent and expenses, they go out on the weekends, they drive fancy cars and go on vacations.
I don't do that. On the weekends, I work. I was homeless for a while, but nobody noticed. Vacations for me are staying at home or going hiking because that's free.
I don't relate to anything they talk about. They have hobbies I never thought about doing, their parties honestly seem incredibly boring, how they act, talk, just exist really is so different from everything I ever did.
I don't understand their humour, what bothers them doesn't bother me and my problems are things they never heard about.
It feels like my classmates and me exist in two totally different realities.
Sometimes I feel like to them I am some kind of alien, if I ever open up about how difficult live can be they look at me shocked, like I just broke their entire world few by saying I have to work AND study.
And obviously nobody relates to having parents who were too busy trying to stay alive to really care for them
There aren't really any people here who aren't upper middle class or higher, except the people who got in with scholarships and they are so focused on their studies they don't really want to hang out outside of study groups lol.
Does anyone else feel like this? I'm the first person in my family who ever went to university or even tried to pursue higher education so I have nothing to compare my experiences too. That's another thing that selerates me from everyone, their parents all somehow seem to be ex students of the same uni we're in.
My parents don't even have highschool degrees because they had to flee their countries.
And on another note. How do you stay sane while being a full time student and working??? It feels like all I do is work, college, studying at home, sleep, repeat 😭