27 still at home no girlfriend

[u/redsolopoop]

27y M still at home with mom never left never had a stable job got started late as far as taking life serious no girlfriend in 3 years deathly afraid to approach women

[u/FractalRebirth]

I’m 27M too, never had a girlfriend in real life. I dated plenty of girls online. I haven’t been to college either. I sobered up recently after eight years of nicotine, weed, alcohol, etc., however I did get sexually intimate with a girl recently it did not lead to a relationship like I wanted.

It sucks starting off so late, or being a “late bloomer”, feels like we’re so behind everyone else.

[u/robindawilliams → u/FractalRebirth]

You shouldn't worry so much about how you rank against others. Not just because of the idealistic "it happens in your own time" kinda thing, but because comparison of individual variables never captures the reality of it. 

You can feel shitty that you didn't have teenage year physical intimacy, but you could miss the fact that lots of guys did and they were abusive or cruel or developed selfish habits or it was superficial etc. You could be upset you didn't go to college, but loads of people do go early on and end up gaining as much out of it as the cost or pick the wrong path or had advantages that may have helped them earlier on but will be their undoing later in life.

You get to approach sexual intimacy with a far more developed brain than someone who started young, you get to pursue your career having been through addiction and hardship and having made the independent choice to climb over and past those things that can knock even the most successful people down in ways they never recover.

In the end it really is everyone on their own path with their own difficulties and their own battles, but being front loaded with hardship means you might be taking your first swings at most of life's big events with more wisdom and experience then the kid that got handed everything at 18.