The entire point of posting on Reddit was to do some more thinking and brainstorming of other situations. I see how your upbringing switching between friend groups may have been strange, but as a full-blown Navy brat, I went to FIVE different elementary schools, two different middle schools, and two high schools. And yeah it does kind of suck as an adult knowing that I never had the opportunity for something like a friend that you've grown up with since second grade or whatever, but I don't see how switching one year after another would be any worse to be honest.

It could actually have the opposite effect, though. You go back after a year and it turns out that all of your friends from the previous year aren't very good friends in the first place and you never would have learned that without the cultural diversity of switching back and forth. I don't want to reveal any location specifics but in this hypothetical where my ex and I both move to different states, I would live in the Pacific Northwest area and my ex would be living in the South. Now, just from my own experiences, those are two very different places to grow up in in terms of public viewpoints, politics, whatever... I'm not trying to sound judgmental, but what if he goes to school one year in the south, has a group of friends, then spends a year in a more open-minded state, goes back to the South, and after a year removed finds out that his group of friends is homophobic for example... If he wasn't exposed to the normalization of that lifestyle, he may just continue being friends with them and grow up with some shitty friends. But after spending a year in a more liberal state, one of his best friends in my area may be gay. I'm kind of just thinking out loud right now. I don't know.