How Do You Stop Feeling Behind In Life?

I used to think there was a timeline. Graduate by this age. Start med school. Match. Get married. Buy a home. Achieve milestone after milestone like a checklist for adulthood.

The problem is that life does not follow a checklist. Life is not linear. And trying to control the timing of everything is the fastest route to disappointment.

I remember watching my friends outside of medicine get promotions, move cities, get married, buy houses. I was proud of them, but I also felt this tiny ache in my chest, like I was late to my own life. It’s hard watching everyone move forward while you feel like you’re on pause.

Then one day my mom said something that shifted everything: “You’re not behind. You’re building.”

I wasn’t stalled. I was growing. I was learning to take care of people. I was learning to take care of myself. I was building a life that looked different, not lesser.

People hit milestones at different moments because they’re supposed to. If everything happened at the same time for all of us, there would be no individuality, no surprise, no magic. Some people meet their soulmate at 18. Some meet them at 38. Some find their passion early. Some discover it through a hundred wrong turns. Some get the life they want quickly. Some get it slowly and appreciate it more.

Nothing meaningful is delayed. It is simply arriving on your timeline.

Now when I see people reaching milestones I haven’t yet, I don’t think “why not me?” I think “I can’t wait for when it’s my turn.” Not out of longing, but out of confidence. Because it will be my turn someday. And yours too.

You are not behind. You are on your path. And one day it will all make sense why it had to happen in this order.