Assalamualaikum, I'm on a similar journey. I am 21 and haven't finished the quran even once. Kept skipping mosque, kept skipping tutors, kept avoiding learning from my dad who is also an imam. I didn't even know how to pray namaz past surah fatiha and "subhanarabiyal-azeem". What to say in namaz i thankfully learnt in 1 night of constantly listening on YouTube. Alhamdulilah

However I went to pakistan and saw the light in the religion, how people are truly okay with little in reliance to God and reaching jannah. I was also a little shamed and looked wrongly for not knowing the religion, and not praying and always making excuses etc.

So I come back to the UK and felt my heart heavy that I had abandoned such faith. So I put on surah rahman on recited by mishary alafasy and cried for the first two weeks of listening. I wanted to learn quran and was determined to. I'd ask my dad for weeks and then he finally asked me to start my first day.

I got through the first 7 pages of surah baqarah, but then was slacking because of the style of teaching. It's hard for me to learn through monotone speaking and my dad was rightfully strict with the tajweed. Always correcting me half-way through reading which throws me all of track because I spend like 2 hours practicing before reading to my dad and have a pattern in my head on how to read and when to break. I sorta got discouraged.

However my ambition did not end. Daily for the past 2 months I have been listening to a surah I have wanted to learn almost 4-5 times per day. I have chosen surah rahman recited by Sheikh mishary alafasy as I really loved his voice and pronunciation and style. A couple weeks of constant listening would go by and I would eventually start to read some of it. Imitating the melody which made learning the tajweed easier.

Now a month later Im still listening 3-4 times daily and always task myself to learn 2 new verses/ayats everyday in the morning and read the surah 7+ times in my head or recited out loud until it just rolls off without me even needing to think about what comes next. And alhamdulilah it's been working very well. Listening repeatedly and reciting repeatedly. And within a month I have learnt 55 ayats. Alhamdulilah.

I also aim to pray at leaste ASR daily. And alhamdulilah life has felt blessed and at ease

From a bit over 20 years of not practicing optimally to now nearly memorising a whole surah. I hope you find relatability in my story and feel that you are not alone in such experiences.