Feeling awful about a ****ty childhood

I grew up with a single mother (my dad left when I was very little) and two sisters who dropped out of school due to getting pregnant. I was raised on a council estate, but it was in a really nice little town down South (leaving out the name so no-one recognises me) and I made quite a few great friends at school in years 6 and 7. I often had to drop out of school to help my sisters look after their kids, and my mother's boyfriends were often physically and emotionally abusive, but my schoolfriends were there for me. We never talked much about what was going on at home but I somehow managed to stay happy. When I was 13, my mum got an awful boyfriend, who had two nearly adult sons of his own. I had just come home from school one day when the son tried to molest me. Thankfully, I got away and managed to call the police. The Social Services came round, and there was enough evidence that my mum had been neglecting me that I ended up moving in with my aunt, who lived in a completely different city. Once I'd moved, my aunt (who was very strict and religious) wouldn't even let me have my mobile phone, or use the Internet, so I was completely cut off from my old friends. I once tried to catch the train back to school just to explain things to them, and was grounded for a week. Apparently she didn't want anyone to have an "influence" on me. She also made me get a part-time job and start paying her for her spare room. As it was better than going back to stay with my mum and her many "boyfriends" that's what I did till I was old enough to go to uni. Because I was working a lot longer than someone my age should have, and my aunt imposed strict curfews and rules, I wasn't bullied at school but I literally had no friends there either. I got to uni (in a different city) last year and it's been alright, but again it feels so different. I can't even go home for the vacations as I have literally no support system. My aunt and mum ring me every now and then and that is it. I've made friends, and am becoming reasonably popular, but even though I'm 19 my childhood still haunts me. I know what I want to do as an adult, and I can be a normal university student and go out wearing a short skirt without my aunt yelling at me. But it's horrible knowing that so much of my childhood was wasted. I almost feel less inclined to grow up, it's like I've left something behind. I was on Facebook today and looked up my old school friends, they're all on there but I don't know if I should get in contact, it's literally been 6 years and I'm the kid who was out of school half the time so they probably wouldn't even remember me. Despite the fact my family was poor, I could have had such a happy, normal childhood and instead I'm at uni crying about it because it was all wasted. I can be a successful adult but I just don't know how to deal with the past.

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