Is dropping out ever a good option?
Hello, I'm looking from outside perspectives and I hope someone can give me an honest take. I'll try to be as concise as possible:
- I'm 18 years old. I'm a foreign student in a country where I comprehend the local language perfectly, but my ability of verbal production hasn't yet caught on. I have completed my second to last year of education here already, and I'm currently enrolled in the final year, however out of 11 days since classes began, I have only attended one.
- I've been having increasingly worsening struggles with mental health an atypical depression diagnosis, anxiety and potential ADHD being thrown in the mix - the latter of which would explain substantially a lot of my academic struggles.
Last year I did surprisingly well, though it is to be noted that I was aided with very amazing teachers and easier tests, so I ended up finishing with an average of 8.12/10. This year things change however, because of how the final exam is structured (required a mathematics test, a literature/grammar test of the local language and then a verbal presentation in front of what's essentially a jury judging your aptitude to graduate) I have a strong feeling I will not do too well, if I even get to be admitted into the final test at all.
I'd like to think of myself as "smart", though we all like to think that, I've been involved in engineering, various language and debate competitions, I'm a biology Olympiad. I was a "smart kid" back in my country, I had family issues, basically got kicked out of my home, ended up living in Europe with my mother, sh*t has been rough for the past 2 years, I'm very invested in my future, getting a good final grade which is near mandatory to get into any half decent university here. I'm getting treatment in the public system and honestly the private route is not economically feasible, my provider has already put it very clearly, I shouldn't expect any relevant advancement (specially around the ADHD) within the past few months, I do not do well in the oral tests (or as good as I'd like to), my mathematical ability is severely underdeveloped and I wasn't able to catch up during the summer, school frankly gives me massive anxiety and I feel miserable in the environment most of the times, not because of anyone or anything in particular, it just feels like a lot.
With all of that out of the way, my core question is: Could it be smart to dropout? Not permanently, I'm unsure whether that's the right term to use, but most kids graduate at around age 19 here, I can get a job even without full management of the local language because I live in a touristic area and I'm fluent in other 4, I also generally had other smaller commission based commission work that while hasn't made me much money, I think I could realistically scale to something. I'm wondering whether dropping this year, getting my core psychiatric issues figured out, actually get into the workforce briefly, earn some money, get my life together and finish my last year at age 20.
I definately want a high school diploma and I am interested in higher education, I'm just not sure whether biting the bullet and crawling to the finish line, even if barely passing would be better than a year.
Thanks for reading.
Posted Sep 21, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC