My good friend (33m) asked me (20f) to be his girlfriend right before we started long distance. Should I still go for it?

A couple of days before I was about to leave the country for a few months (University exchange, Europe), my good friend confessed that he has been in love with me for a while.<br><br>I was honestly really surprised because I didn't think that he was interested in me romantically. I was in a relationship myself just a few months before since the beginning of this year because I did not know him that well and didn't want to ruin our friendship. <br><br>I decided to use the time since I got back to think things through and at first, I thought that I would say no. <br><br>He and I have no mutual friends besides his ex. No one even knows that he asked me because I was afraid they wouldn't approve of it. <br><br>We have a 13 year age gap and he is a lot more mature while I'm still figuring out a lot of my life. I'm also planning to travel some more after I graduate and he already said he's not willing to give up his job to travel. <br><br>But somehow, after rationally thinking about all the cons and when I thought things through and reflected on my feelings, it hit me that I'm really in love with him too. I don't know how because I did not see him in a romantic way before. <br><br>But at the same time, many things make me sad to take this risk.<br><br>My main concern is that I'm still figuring out my life and he seems to have figured out his. But then I also remembered that he's still figuring out his life too. I figured out that he's still in the process of building his life as well. <br><br>The past few days I've been trying to find out if I want a relationship now. It has been 3 months since we've been apart and I was super excited to get back home and spend Christmas with him. Yesterday I had the realization that I want to be in a relationship with him after I came back home from work and immediately felt a little down. <br><br>Why? I know this sounds a little weird but I've been feeling a little down when I'm by myself and I miss him, but at the same time I'm not feeling as anxious about the distance as I was when I was not sure if I wanted to be with him. I'm starting to feel okay. <br><br>So why am I feeling a little blue about it? In my mind I was like "IT'S TIME TO BE WITH HIM" but now I realized that I don't want to. I realized that I'm still figuring out my life and until I get a job, I don't feel confident enough about myself and my life to take that step. <br><br>Eevry time I think that I'm not ready for a relationship because I don't have the same level of maturity as him, I want to know if it's possible for things to work out between people that are at a different point in their lives. Especially if I can still figure out his life and support him in this process. <br><br>I feel a little sad knowing that if I'm not ready to open up to him now, I'm going to have to miss him more after telling him that I'm still figuring out my life. <br><br>I'm really wondering if it's going to work out and if I should tell him that I want to be with him but only once I have figured out my life. <br><br>I'm currently supposed to start work in about 1-2 months, and then maybe I will already have figured out my life a little better. But I don't know how he's going to feel about this. <br><br>TL;DR: I feel like a little girl that's still figuring out her life and he's a grown man. I don't know if it will work out and don't want to risk ruining the friendship.