Seeking advice on my new D&D character...

So my buddy asked the crew to roll up some new characters for a campaign he's working on. The setup for the first session is pretty standard: the mayor of a town has had his taxes taken by bandits, so we're going to play as the party of adventurers he sends out into the woods to investigate.

So far we've got 2 fighters, a ranger and a monk. I rolled some pretty good stats and we don't really have anyone with high CHA so I'm thinking of going with a Bard since our party needs a leader.

I know I want him to be a young prodigy since he has high INT and WIS is his dump stat, but looking into the Jack of All Trades class feature, it's going to be hard to justify a young person having experience in skill in all these random areas! So my background has to justify it.

Here's what I've got so far: He was raised by a traveling circus/performing troupe, so that's why he's good at music. Then his family dies somehow (still working on this part) and he lives on his own for a bit in the woods, which is how he learns about Nature, Animal Handling, etc. And then he becomes an orphan in the city--that's why he'll have some skill in Stealth and Slight of Hand. Then he winds up at a Magic University, which is where he trains in Arcana and other magic stuff.

Still not totally sure why he'd leave the University to go off into the woods hunting bandits though. Maybe something to do with how his family died? Also at some point I'm considering multiclassing into Monk since he has a high DEX.

Any advice on how to link all these together would be super helpful! Thanks.