As someone who has used Debian/*buntu/Mint distros for the last 12 years, I'll simply say, just use it every day and challenge yourself to do new things, especially bash scripting. I have a custom bash script that can configure a new installation with all my settings using a few commands like sed, echo, cp, and if/then statements. One thing that might be helpful is to replace the software center with synaptic as that will give you greater control over the packages on your system. Although with the push for snap this might be harder in the future, so Debian would be a good alternative. I'm still on 16.04 LTS, but I'm not liking the direction things are headed. For the VPN, set up openvpn configuration in the network manager, that way when you're connected it will have a little padlock icon and let you know if the connection drops expectantly. And make sure you check for DNS leaks with dnsleaktest.com or ipleak.net.