Gap year opportunities

   In recent years there has been a trend that I find very interesting, which is the trend of students taking a gap year. So what does gap year mean? Essentially, it means that after a student has finished high school, they don't immediately come to college but instead they take a one year break away from academic stuff to do other things. If you are interested in learning more about gap year - what do people typically do during the gap year instead of studying - this is a good place for you. Through this post, I hope that you are able to understand more of why so many people end up taking a gap year, and probably ask yourself whether taking a gap year is a suitable option for you.

   There are actually a billion reasons why many high school graduates decide to take a gap year, but today I would like to talk about three main reasons - the first one that I am going to talk about is the idea of exploring interests. Much of the time in high school, students have to spend long hours per day doing academic work, which means that they don’t really have time to pursue their interests, for example, art or music or sports. When people decide to take a gap year, they don't completely dump their education, but instead they use this as an opportunity to pursue these interests to better understand themselves. A lot of the time, many high school graduates may not know much about themselves, and also are very vague about the future; therefore, by taking this one year break, they are able to explore what they like and try to pursue it. Part of this is the idea of traveling around the world: many high school graduates decide to use their money to go around the world to explore different places, or they can come to specific places to better understand some certain interests. This is a pretty good idea because in the school year or in the school environment, they won’t really have time to do all these exciting things; therefore, taking a gap year can be a good idea for you to explore what you like about different cultures and different food from around the world, and essentially just enjoy yourself!

   Another thing that I found very interesting is that many high school graduates end up taking a gap year in order to do volunteer work. Many people, many high school graduates, really want to sacrifice themselves for the better of the world; therefore, there have been many cases where people take a year off to, for example. go to the countryside in order to help the people there, or join an NGO that goes around to clean the Earth, or meet underprivileged people. I've also known about cases where people even travel abroad to understand about the lives of people in poorer countries, so that they can help the people there. Through this activity, people can gain a lot of benefits: first of all, they can better appreciate what they are having and also come to love the people around them, second of all, this is also an opportunity to meet up with new people of the same interest and also to get to travel to different places that they may not be able to do when they are in school. Finally, by volunteering, they can also build their college application which will help them tremendously when the next year comes when they decide to apply for college.

   Talking about building applications for college, this is actually the third thing that I would like to talk about. Many people, because they sacrifice a lot of their time in high school in order to do academic work, they end up missing a lot of time that they can dedicate to extracurricular activities; and if you are in the US you may know that if people want to apply to these universities, especially the more privileged one, for example the Ivy League, then a part of their application is that they must have a lot of extracurricular activities, something that many people may not have. Therefore, taking a year off can be a good time to pursue these interests. I have known people who take a year off in order to start an NGO of their own, or create a business that ends up making a lot of money. Extracurricular activities can also be intertwined with your interest also, which is the thing that I first talked about in this post. Many people end up participating in different programs or internship opportunities, which can be used for their application by bringing them to an advantageous position compared to others.

The decision of whether to take a gap year or not depends on a lot of factors, for example, whether you feel like doing it, whether you have the financial capabilities of doing it, and also whether your parents approve of it. However, given the many advantages the gap year can bring, definitely consider doing it!