As the title says, I am a 17 year old who is currently in their senior/final year of high school. I currently live with my parents in Florida, an alcoholic and prescription drug addict mother and a narcissistic father with anger issues. Both parents have put me and my sister through mental and emotional abuse and formerly physical abuse. All of these forms of abuse have been reported to DCF to the point where we were both removed from our house in 2016 and let back in the house in 2017 with no changes whatsoever.
Currently in 2018, the situation has remained the same and I am currently five months away from turning 18 years old. I have no patience anymore and I have come up with the plan to run away as soon as I graduate high school, which the graduation date is set for June 1, 2019. I currently do not have a job but will be able to afford a plane ticket and the bare essentials to potentially move to Minnesota for a few months as soon as I receive my high school diploma. I was given the opportunity to stay at a trustworthy friend's house and her parents have pretty much said okay under my circumstances and past. I would live at her house for a few months and get my own apartment and attend community college in MN for two years and then switch to a university in California to major in screenwriting. This is my dream job and I really want to pursue this career. I don't have any other family members to live with as all of them relate to the issues of my mother and father.
However, I do not know if I can take waiting another nine months. I am considering leaving as soon as I turn 18 to potentially couch surf or rent out a room on craigslist, if I have a job by then. Would it be in my best interest to stay in Florida and rent an apartment or find roommates at 18 and attend college here? Living in Minnesota with my friend's family would be beneficial as they could help me out because truthfully, I can only be self-sufficient at some things and I have no idea how to do anything else. There is another downside of losing in-state tuition if I'm lucky enough to get that. Frankly, I'm not even sure how the college tuition and grants go. I have no hope for a scholarship as I under performed in my ninth and tenth grade years of high school and only started to turn my grades around last year, but even with this intact, my GPA is still average. But would running away be to Minnesota be a good thing or a bad thing?
I am super scared and I am not sure what's in my best interest. I still have a few months before and I would like to know what is in my best interest by posting this here on /r/personalfinance rather than just leaving with no intentions and possibly fucking up my life more than it is already.
Submitted August 27, 2018 at 06:50PM by depressedbi https://ift.tt/2BNwvO9
