Someone once asked...
Someone answered with kindness...
A man in his fifties once told me he felt like he was starting his real life late, after years spent on things he no longer valued. I asked him behind whom, exactly. He listed names. People from school, people online, people he barely knew anymore. There is no universal finish line you're behind on. There's only the specific, private work of your one life, running on a clock nobody else can see or set for you. "Behind" only exists if you agree to race against people who were never running your course.