Newbie - bf suddenly left after 9 years

[Italian]

I didn't exactly choose it tbh... we had been together three years, and I had been planning to study abroad all along. I decided I didn't want to compromise my education for a love story, but we loved each other, and decided to give it a try and see if we made it work. He was very supportive - when I was telling him that I didn't know if I could do it any longer, he told me that if he was the reason why I was giving up my opportunities, then he would break up with me so I would carry on with my studies. He supported me all along, but he was expecting me to eventually come back home to him. He told me that he was worried that after waiting for so long I would eventually decide to stay in the UK and we would never get the 'prize' so to speak.

Oh, the irony...

Through it all, I never broke up with him because I loved him and believed we would have a good life together. Even though I was tempted at one time, I always held on because I knew that our future together was worth it.

I suppose that's why it's so upsetting - because one we did have our 'prize' he was the one who didn't want it, even though he'd been pushing for it for all those years. I did what he wanted me to do and in return he just ran away with no respect for the effort and sacrifices we, but mostly I, had made. I don't know what he expected our future together to be, but he was probably fine with it as long as it was somewhere in the future. Once it was there, and it wasn't a magical fairytale, he bolted.

I'll be lookin up this Love Avoidant thing. Mine might be a similar case.