Uncategorized February 14, 2017
Have you ever considered taking a gap year? Picture walking out of your last class of the semester, flinging your backpack in the trunk and shouting “I’m free!” Taking that year off to do what you want before several years of mental and physical exertion can be a great option.
A gap year is a break between high school and college or between undergraduate and graduate school. Usually this gap is one year, but can be as short as a semester or even longer than one year.
Generally, gap years aren’t encouraged in the United States; students are expected to go straight from high school to college to a job. But in many other countries, this isn’t the norm, especially in the UK and Australia, where people are the most likely to take some time off before starting school again.
Here are five gap year benefits you should know.
What better time to travel the world than during your gap year? You can put your responsibilities on the sideline for a few months and go backpacking, staying at hostels, meeting new people, learning other cultures’ traditions and trying new food. All this traveling will make you a global citizen and more aware of other people and cultures outside of your hometown or city.
You worked really hard in high school to get accepted into your dream college. But now you’re already tired. You couldn’t imagine facing four more years of this without a break. So take a gap year! You’ll avoid mentally burning out before you’re only halfway through college. And according to this article, students going back to school after taking a gap year are showing, “an increase in GPA, greater engagement in campus life, increased likelihood that students will graduate ‘on time’ or within four years, and of course greater clarity with career ambitions.”
Who knows? If you hadn’t taken that year to intern at that company or work on that blog, you might never have known where your true passions lie. Taking a year to explore your interests outside of the academic world can lead you on a path you never expected.
Many of us go into college undecided on a major or a career after graduation. Many of us even switch majors more than once over the years. If you take that gap year, you’ll have time to sort through potential careers, go on job shadows or even volunteer to figure out what you want to do in the future.
Maybe you’ll use your gap year to spend some time in a foreign country. While you’re there, you can immerse yourself in local culture, picking up a new language in the meantime. With the world becoming so globalized, it is a valuable asset to be bi- or multi- lingual.
Maybe you want to spend your year giving back to the community. Whether you spend your time in your local soup kitchen or in a third world country, you are using your time selflessly. And spending less time thinking of yourself and your own problems might help you gain clarity at the end of the year about what you want to do in the future.
Taking a gap year is a major decision, but most of those who return find that they have spent their time valuably, learning more about themselves and others than if they had just gone straight from high school to college.
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