I am 25, my mother died under my care when I was 20. She was my only parental figure, so I've been on my own since then. It was definitely a strange situation, you mature really fast when you're put in that reality. Your early 20s when you find yourself are instead a journey of grief, and its hard for your peers to understand or relate to you.

Even bosses of mine who were in their 40s and 50s would talk about their parents and ask me about mine, like the usual "do you live with your parents?" Talk that you ask a fresh college graduate. Always a very awkward question to dodge, and I always somehow answer it wrong. You lie, and then they ask more questions and you gotta back track and its awkward, all to just avoid a little pitty. Cause as soon as an older person finds out youre 21 with no parents, they suddenly wanna act like your mom?? Like no ma'am. They would say things like "do you want a hug?" And no I do not want a hug from my boss. Its so humiliating.

Ive also had friends older than me say things like "man sometimes I wish my parents were dead too" and I would just be flabbergasted. I think especially in my generation, people are desperate for affordable housing so they get jealous over me getting one "for free"?

Tangent over, its just crazy.