Why take a gap year

I deliberated a lot over whether or not to take a gap year. I started thinking about it years ago and went back and forth on whether I should take a year, just take off as soon as school finished and have a long summer of travel or go straight from school to university and get a job at home over the summer. Right up till the last moment I still wasn't sure so in the end whether I had this gap year or not came down entirely to my school results - if I got into Durham University I would go straight there and if I didn't I would take a gap year and go to my second choice the following year. Because of the way the results worked out, that meant that I didn't know for sure that I would be taking a gap year until the middle of August last year. Now that it's almost time for me to go back into education, I am very glad I ended up taking this year out and I would for sure recommend it to other people considering it.

When people ask me why I'm taking a gap year, my first response is normally that I want to see some of the world while I'm still young and the best time to do it is before I get stuck in a long-term career. There are so many incredible places to see and, though I know I'll never be able to see it all, you have to start somewhere. Whilst you can take a gap year after university, it seems to me that there are so many resources at university to help you go straight into employment and employers specifically coming to university to seek out graduates that it would be a good idea to make the most of this rather than coming back after a year and having to look on your own. Also, knowing I have a place at uni already confirmed means I have something concrete to go back for so there's no danger of a year turning into longer!

An obvious reason for taking a gap year is that you gain a whole load of life experience and transferable skills. This looks great on a CV and also gives you something interesting to talk about both in interviews and in life generally. If you can say you've travelled across the world on your own at the age of 18, worked in foreign countries and lived away from home for extended periods of time then it has to count for something. It's proof I can be independent and responsible and know how to do basic things like budget and plan as well as shopping and cooking for myself and doing my own laundry. Of course, things never all go entirely to plan and showing that you were able to cope with this in a foreign country on your own is likely to be good interview material, not to mention, great for character building! In addition to all these generally essential life skills, I've also broadened my work experience extensively: in one year I've gone from having only volunteering experience to being able to list a number of paid positions, all in completely different fields of work. Hopefully this'll be really beneficial when it comes to applying for jobs back home.

My confidence has grown and I've developed skills in talking to new people, navigating foreign places, problem solving and probably a whole lot more that I'm not even aware of. I've gained cultural awareness, really pushed myself out of my comfort zone and become even more open-minded and tolerant. I've improved my French, learnt a little bit of Italian and tried too many new things to count. Knowing that I can travel across the world on my own should make other things in life seem easy, right?

When I left school last year I still felt pretty young - university students seemed kinda intimidating and definitely much older than me! I won't really feel like a student until I get there but after this year I'm feeling a lot more ready. I've always had an inexplicable fear of anyone who's slightly older than me (we're talking 1-5 years older). This year the majority of people I've met have been exactly that age and it turns out they're not too bad after all! I've made friends ranging in age from 2 to 65 years old which is a real change from school where I pretty much only spent time with people in my year group. It has been wonderful to meet so many people with different experiences and to learn from them.

I've yet to see whether this is a good thing or not in the long term, but I have certainly enjoyed the break from academic stress, deadlines, studying and exams. Perhaps it will be hard to settle back in to it when I start uni in September or perhaps it'll be easy and I'll benefit from having taken the time to clear my head. For now I'm just making the most of not having to constantly worry about that piece of coursework that has to be finished or that test I know in the back of my mind I really ought to be studying for. I can relax guilt free!

One of the things that made me hesitate about taking a year out was the worry that the things I wanted to do wouldn't work out or I wouldn't get round to doing them and I'd end up sitting at home for the year wasting time. Luckily that didn't happen! I managed to find jobs and Workaway really helped to keep me motivated in travelling because I didn't feel like it was just eating up money and it was easy to find hosts in interesting places with exciting projects going on even at short notice. So I guess from that I've learnt that sometimes you just have to go for for it and take risks - when I left home in December I wasn't planning on spending more time in Switzerland or Italy but they turned out to be two of the best things I did all year.

A common misconception is that you can only take a gap year and travel if you're rich. There's definitely a stereotype of gappers being posh, lazy kids who go off backpacking and partying because they don't want to get a job or study. This is not every gap year and it's not at all true that you have to be rich. I spent three months at home to start with and worked a job at a local holiday park. This enabled me to save some money for funding my travels. I then travelled using Workaway and I was lucky enough to get a free interrail pass from the British government so that trip didn't cost me very much. Aside from Workaway and a few nights in youth hostels, I have only travelled to places where I have a job - i.e. Val d'Isere and now Mont Tremblant. These jobs pay more than enough for me to live on. Obviously, it would also be very easy to have a gap year that does need a lot of money but it doesn't have to be that way. The only thing I would say is that I always like to have the security of knowing I have at least enough in my bank account to cover a couple of nights' accommodation and travel home just in case anything did go wrong. Other than that, a gap year can be for anybody; it is what you make of it.

#gapyear #travel