I'm honestly happy that your life has been kind enough to you to feel that way. But try telling that to a kid in a neighborhood where drugs, prostitution and crime are honestly seen as the only options for a life any more meaningful than flipping burgers.
You've gotten at the central theme of the main characters though. The daughter, through no fault of her own has never had a family life to learn from. Unlike most, she never had the chance to learn of any life beyond that which an orphanage run by nuns would teach her.
Then there's her friend. Somehow a little more worldly-wise, as at least she's been out in the workplace for a while. I get the feeling that she either came into the orphanage later in childhood, or at least, knew a lot more about where she'd come from. And of course, she's been out in the workplace a while. But she was still in a bad position that could have destroyed her.
Then there's the daughter of the Mayor.
Even the MC has issues with the lessons life has taught.
Life isn't a teacher at all, never mind a 'best' one. Life is a system that kills whatever it can, such that evolution, and the survival of the fittest, rules the day. Life isn't out to teach you - it's out to kill you, if it can, and you
teach yourself to survive it and thrive.