Hello everyone, I have a question especially for those people, who have an experience with studying abroad for longer periods of time or for those who are parents of kids. Here is some (quite a lot of) background information, the questions are in the last paragraph.  I live in Czechia (central Europe) and am 16 years old, turning 17 in April. In January, I applied at a national committee for a scholarship to study abroad for 2 years after my mum told me about it. Now, I am in the last round of the selection procedure, in which there are 10 or 9 participants and 8 of them will get the scholarship, so it's become kind of a more serious thing for me. Here is my view on it: I am suffering in the school I am at now, I am doing many creative, intellectually stimulating things outside school, but the school itself is merely a place to socialize for me, I am striving to get a better quality education. https://www.uwc.org/ UWC (United World College) is an international organization that has schools all around the world. Their top values are diversity, integration of knowledge, understaning, ecology and more free, friendly communication between students and teachers, who also kind of work like mentors. All the people I've asked who have studied there have told me about their incredible experience, so I am not affraid of going into a scam. The academics at the school are also interconnected with a mandatory creative activity, research in a chosen area and epistemology and a service for the local community, such as teaching local kids English etc... (feel free to apply via your national committee if you are 15-17 years old) From the 8 people, each of them gets to study on a different school that the national committee decides, but we can give them our prefferations. The possible destinations this year are: Norway, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tanzania, China, India, Singapore and Armenia. My prefferation is India, because I like the subjects there the most and the school is located in a national park, so I could spend some time alone among trees which is really beneficial for my spiritual work. I wouldn't really have any issues with studying at any of the schools, but literally all of my family members except my mum are not supportive of this idea of mine. I also think it is important to say that the school are international, therefore there shouldn't be that much of a difference in terms of the quality of education, although there most likely is some.  I really take this path seriously and I would like to execute on my visions, but I also know that I am a rather impulsive and naive person and that I might sometimes not think through things as much as needed, so I am still looking at the opposite opinions. (staying in Europe) I've had some depressive periods in the last few weeks that were about leaving everything I know, especially friends, but I think these are normal and it will pass after some time. I also resonate with the stage green European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, I know because I've been studying their languages at school, but I don't know if going to a more exotic place wouldn't give me a richer experience... I am basically lost.   Questions here: I still don't know whether I will be accepted or not, but I believe in myself that I will... What do you think? What things would you consider doing in my situation, what prefferation would you give them and for what reasons? (you don't have to be specific, just say Asia/Europe, probably not Africa because my grandma would get a heart attack, although I love black people very much) How would you treat the possible family conflicts? Do you think that once a child leaves their home, it is likely that they won't ever come back? (move to a foreign country) Why? Small edit: The school seems to be really high consciousness organization, I came home from the selection procedure very excited, all the people there were very open and curious, the adults were extremely friendly and warm and in one of the activities I wrote about my interests in yoga and meditation and I also spoke about the benefits of psychedelics in another activity, after which I was accepted.