When I was 18, I spent one year studying abroad.
Some people in my family thought I couldn’t do it, couldn’t “survive” on my own. Every since I first started wanting to do it, I always heard questions of “how will you do X?” (mostly related to eating bc my food issues are tough)
I was scared as hell too, but I really wanted it and I knew I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live there, so I took it
During the months of preparation, my mom in special gave me a lot of stress with her obvious belief that I couldn’t do it.
I felt like an useless adult. I felt it before going, I felt it arriving there and failing to do some basic stuff (ie I needed to text my parents for them to teach me which train to take, and they had never even visited that place), I felt it when I got to know my classmates who obviously knew what they were doing while I didn’t
I have read and reflected a lot lately and I realized that most of the reasons for people, including myself, to believe I couldn’t do it are due to traits related to autism (combined with being raised by overprotective parents, which I already knew).
In the end I could do it. I ended up worsening my depression because I isolated myself a lot from everyone during that time, but I learned to adjust. I did indeed find food I could eat and learned to order it in their language, I learned how to use public transportation and to remember the ways to places, I learned to use a stove and I even got to meet people who don’t even speak my mother language. I also realized that even the people who seem to know how to adult don’t really know it so well.