"minor life"

I'm currently reading John Green's novel "Looking for Alaska" and also it's German translation. There's a sentence in the original text (the first in the book actually) that reads:

"The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party."

I'm just wondering, what does "minor life" mean here?

The German translator translated the sentence as (re-translated into English):

"The week before I left my family and Florida to spend the rest of my youth at boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party."

So apparently she understood "minor life" as "life as a teenager/youth" but is this really accurate?

<<So apparently she understood "minor life" as "life as a teenager/youth" but is this really accurate?>>

In this context it makes perfect sense -- the life of a person who hasn't reached the age of majority.

"Minor" in this sense is usually a noun, meaning a person who has not reached the age of 18 (although in some places it's a different age). Usually when it's used as an adjective, it means "small", "unimportant", or "secondary". Here, the author is using the meaning that the noun usually has, but it's functioning as an adjective. So "minor life" means, in this context, "life pertaining to when I was a minor".

BTW, pronouns never take possesive 's. So it's "its German translation", not it's.

<<Usually when it's used as an adjective, it means "small", "unimportant", or "secondary".>>

I see. What I thought the author meant with "minor life" was something along the lines of a life that "lacks a life", a dull/empty/boring life.

<<pronouns never take possesive 's. So it's "its German translation", not it's.>>

Yes, I just didn't proof read well enough. But thanks.

I think it's a pretty strange wording. I would say "life as a minor" rather than "minor life".

I would drop the "minor" altogether and go with "adolescent" life, which is a far more common expression.