I will graduate with my friends in Sweden!
One of the disadvantages of going on an exchange year is having to graduate a year later than your friends. Thankfully, this is not my case!
I do not know if this option is well known, and it might only apply for Swedish students, but if you are going on your exchange year after 9:th grade, and you are going to an English speaking country, the International Baccalaureate diploma programme is an option. The IB programme is a "gymnasielinje" (Swedish secondary school), where all studies are done in the English language. The programme is International, and it only takes place during 2 years. In Sweden all secondary school programmes must be 3 years long, and therefore the Swedish IB consists of a preparation year. I will not attend the preperation year, instead I will jump straight into the second year with the other students my age! This is something you will need to arrange with your future school, in my case IHGR - The International High School of the Gothenburg Region.
This is also one of the reasons why my blog is in English - because when I come back home I will continue my studies in this language.