I (25f) didn't go to a 4 year university. My parents pushed me into a dual enrollment program in high school through a community college in my hometown. While the degree was free, part of it required me to stay on campus for a year after completing high school. If I backed out of the program, I wouldn't get a degree or a high school diploma, so I felt stuck. I really pushed myself to reach out and be social there. In high school I struggled with severe social anxiety and didn't really have friends, but it was improving and I was looking forward to the change of scenery. I had no luck at all. Everyone there was either in the same program as me and still had their friend groups from high school, or were at least 20 years older than me. There were no clubs or social events and everyone there was just there to get to somewhere else.
I pushed through it and graduated with an associates degree. I planned on working a bit, saving up some money, traveling, then going back to school when I really nailed down what I wanted to do. Then covid happened. It stopped me from doing pretty much anything other than burying myself in work. About a year into it, I started developing some serious health problems. It became debilitating and I was no longer able to work, drive, or really do anything. With health care being so backed up and my symptoms being so complicated, it took literally years for me to get diagnosed and treated.
I'm physically doing better now, but I feel like I've missed a huge, super important part of my development. I have no friends, honestly haven't had any close friends since I was about 12, and still live with my parents in the same small town I grew up in. I have never been in a relationship or even been on a date, I'm working a shitty, dead-end seasonal job that's almost over and no idea what I'm doing after that. I have a good chunk of money stashed away from doing nothing but working, but have no plans for it. I have absolutely no luck socially and barely run into anyone my age, and on the off chance I do, we either don't click or they're preoccupied with friends/relationships they already have. I feel like my life has been ruined. I feel like I was supposed to "blossom" in college/my early 20s. I'm at a loss for what to do now.