You need more than national rankings to study abroad
Opinion
By
Dorcus Mbugua
| Nov 30, 2025
Consider what lies beyond national rankings and Dean’s lists if you are planning to move abroad for study especially if you are doing so immediately after high school.
Being book smart is an advantage in that it will open doors and opportunities like scholarships and other study abroad incentives, but that will only account for the academic component of the next chapter of your life.
The more crucial and unfortunately, severely overlooked element of your life that will carry you beyond university hallways, is your mental health and specifically, the tools you need to navigate challenges that await in adulting – challenges that will no doubt require mental fortitude.
I began therapy about three years ago, many years after commencing the adult chapter of my life in Australia. Relocating to Kenya in 2020 and navigating numerous transitions in my life led me down a deep hole into a state of misery – I didn’t know my left from my right.
In the depths of my despair, I was expecting my first child and was painfully aware that I did not feel ready or equipped enough to bear the responsibility of raising a tiny human, when I felt like a mess in every other area of my life.
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Back when I was settling into my new life as an international student in Australia, my coping mechanism when my homesickness turned chronic was to isolate and detach.
I had no precedent for therapy or counselling, nor did I consider that asking for help was an option – I had been socialised to wear a fake smile, proclaim God’s goodness in every situation, and otherwise suck it up. We didn’t air any dirty laundry as Africans, much less pay to do so.
Turns out being a parent will force you to take an honest look at yourself regularly, through the mirror that is your offspring. As a mum, I no longer have the luxury of ignorance. I’m forced to take accelerated courses in patience and emotional stability, at the same time as I’m teaching the same to my kids – would not recommend.
Late teens and early twenties should be the ideal time to begin to form curiosities about our psychological blueprint, and to learn how to incorporate the appropriate skills and tools to achieve aggregate success in the school of life.
This is not taught in schools and so requires one to be proactive and intentional. I’m glad that we now live in a time when talk of therapy is commonplace and even more so among the younger generation.
Investing in mental wellness is the only solution I see to navigate the great unknown that is the world – and develop the ability to deal with life’s uncertainties without unraveling.
For better or worse, human nature is universal, and I’ve come to learn it’s universally disappointing. People we look up to and admire or wish to emulate are fighting demons in private that we will never know about. The real flex here is to live with the duality of our light and our shadow and to control both.