I've onboarded plenty of people in the past couple of years to Laravel. The changes from v5 -> v6 were the larger than most of the changes from v6 to now. Even

I've onboarded plenty of people in the past couple of years to Laravel. The changes from v5 -> v6 were the larger than most of the changes from v6 to now. Even then, those 5->6 changes weren't that bad. You can follow along with Laracasts on v8 and upgrade to 9 when you're ready. It will be an easy transition.