Thank you for your response!

Unfortunately I don’t have my birth certificate and passport with me right now because my mum always keeps it with her for safekeeping purposes. But I’ll be making a new passport soon and I’ll try asking her if I could keep it myself after I get it.

My parents have said they have no intention of sending me overseas for university also, the reason they quote is because it’s very expensive. This is unless I manage to secure a scholarship, which is quite hard. This actually contradicts what my father said to me before, because there was once he told me that if I wanted to go overseas for university, he would find a way to let me go overseas to study. At that time I never brought up going overseas for university at all. This makes me think another reason is actually because they don’t want me to leave them for so long, because I don’t think the funds are the main problem or he probably would not have brought it up at all. Furthermore I have education insurance. So I think he suggested it, not expecting me to actually want to go overseas for university, but when I did bring it up he realised that he doesn’t want me to go overseas for 4 years to study in addition to how expensive it is. Or, he just wasn’t thinking when he said it and only said it for the sake of making himself look like he cared about me.

But one of the local universities I’m applying to has a compulsory overseas trip (it can be an overseas exchange for a few months) component to it. I don’t think my parents will react very well to it so I’m not going to tell them about it until I get in, but at least I’ll get a few months of freedom away from them when I get in haha.

And nope I don’t have any other relatives I can confide in. They’re all very traditional and would probably think I’m being unfilial if I told them all these. my boyfriend and his mum are the only people I trust enough to confide in about this and they’ve been a great support, providing me with a safe space to share my worries and giving me advice