Is it really wise to leave India after BDS, knowing I’d also be leaving behind my family and my boyfriend?
I’m really confused about whether leaving India after BDS is actually the right decision for me.
I know that if I move abroad, I’ll probably have to break up with my boyfriend. We’re long distance already, and I know maintaining the relationship across another country and eventually building completely separate lives would be extremely difficult. On top of that, I’d be leaving my family behind. Realistically, I might only be able to visit once a year, or twice at best. I don’t have extremely close relatives abroad either. I do have some relatives there, but I don’t think I could realistically depend on them for much emotional or practical support.
And honestly, this scares me because I KNOW I get lonely. I sometimes feel lonely even in college, where I’m surrounded by people every day. So I genuinely worry about how I would cope with moving to an entirely new country, starting from zero, making new friends and basically building a life without my family or the people I currently love around me. What if I end up being miserable and regret leaving?
The frustrating part is that I genuinely wanted to do MDS in India. Staying here would mean being close to my family, keeping my relationship, having my existing social life and not having to start my entire life over somewhere else. But financially, I’m struggling to see the future in it.
The earning potential after MDS in India seems so limited, especially considering how expensive and competitive everything is. I worry that it could take years before I’m financially comfortable or genuinely successful. I’m a girl who loves going out, travelling, having freedom and enjoying life. I don’t want to spend my 20s constantly worrying about money and only be able to comfortably afford the lifestyle I want much later, potentially after 35, unless I marry someone wealthy, which obviously isn’t a plan I want to depend on.
At the same time, I don’t want to put a huge financial burden on my family. If I go abroad, there will obviously be a massive initial investment, but at least there seems to be a possibility of better long-term financial stability.
So I feel completely stuck between two versions of my life:
Stay in India → family, boyfriend, familiarity and emotional support, but potentially slower financial growth and fewer opportunities.
Move abroad → potentially better career and financial prospects and more independence, but I could lose my relationship, see my family very rarely, have very little support initially and potentially struggle badly with loneliness.
I also don’t know whether I’m romanticising the idea of moving abroad. Maybe I’m looking at the salaries and lifestyle online and ignoring how lonely and difficult the actual process can be.
For anyone who moved abroad after BDS, especially alone: was it worth sacrificing the relationships and familiarity you left behind? Did you actually become happier and more financially independent, or did the loneliness make you regret it?
And for people who stayed in India and did MDS: are the career and financial prospects really as bad as I’m imagining, or is there a realistic way to build a comfortable, independent life through dentistry here?
I’d really appreciate honest answers, especially from people who have actually lived through either decision rather than just “India bad/abroad good” or vice versa.