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Should I move away with boyfriend

I am currently doing my teacher training and all being well I should be a qualified teacher in June. It's now time to start making big decisions though and this terrifies me for so many reasons.
I met my boyfriend while we were doing our undergraduate degrees and lived together in halls. He lives 2 hours away from my home which was fine when we were at uni because in term time we lived in the city we went to uni at and over holidays we would see each other as much as possible. When it came to leaving though he moved away for a placement year and I moved back home. We see each other every weekend but the long distance has put a bit of a strain on our relationship. When he moved away, he lived on his own and he became depressed. This came to a head when he lost his job and he told me he was thinking about suicide. Thus was incredibly hard to deal with as he does not have much in the way of family - he doesn't get on with his parents and his sister has her own children to deal with. Since then he has got somewhat better. He still has his down days which are hard to deal with considering the stress that my course comes with but we are trying to work through it.
The plan is that he go back to our old university to carry out his final year and I will move there with him. The problem is that before I met him I never contemplated moving away from home. I am incredibly close to my parents and while I coped with living away for university I worry that I won't be able to with the added pressures of my boyfriend's mental health and with it being the start of my new career.
I have spoken at length with my boyfriend about this and he is very supportive. He understands that I don't want to move away from home but we have agreed that we cannot have another year of long distance. This is partly due to the nature of his job as it is fairly niche and he would need to be close to major cities whereas I live in the countryside.
I am so lost. I fear that if our relationship were to break down I would be stuck there at least until the end of the academic year. I need to start applying for jobs but I keep putting it off as I can't make a decision. I hate the thought of losing him but I also don't want to be almost 2 hours away from my parents.
I know this is a very long post so thank you if you have spent time reading this. If anyone has any input on this I would be very grateful. I know this decision can only really come from me but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Reply 1

mizzsnazzter

Why don't you just live in the middle somewhere?

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Reply 2

KingStannis

I think you'll have to move away from your parents at some point, it might as well be for your relationship and your bf mental health.

Reply 3

chazwomaq

I'm not quite clear - do you want to live at home, or just near your parents' home (same village or something?).

I grew up in the countryside too. There are no jobs where my parents are, and even if there were, I couldn't afford the prices. The truth is, you have to move away at some point. A big city will give you many more options for jobs too.

University should be about making the transition to independence. Time to fly the nest and look to the future with your bf, rather than the past with your parents.

2 hours is really not that far anyway!