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So What Do You Do During Your “Time Off?”

In America, the current, accepted norm is for a young, high school graduate to go straight into post-secondary education the following semester after they graduate high school. During most of a student’s time in primary school, his or her learning is chosen for him/her. As they begin their college years, it is the first time a student is able to make a choice on what it is           they want to learn. This can be an overwhelming and bewildering decision.

According to the National Center for Education, 80% of college students change their major at least once; however, on average, college students change their major at least three times over the course of their college career. Speaking for myself, I’ve changed my major twice in my college career, and that’s not including the times I’ve considered, but not made the switch. For me and many others like me, the pressure to choose a lifelong career path at such a young age is stressful and incapacitating. That’s when a gap year can  and should be used. 

So, you’ve decided it’s time to take a break. You’ve taken the steps you need to be able to step away. Your education will. Be waiting for you when you’re ready to go back. Now what exactly do you do with all this “free” time? 

College students make school their full-time job, and these students often have a part-time or even full-time occupation on the side. Nevertheless, removing a 40-hour commitment in a your week will leave you with a lot more time on your hands, and this is time, which you now  need to be purposeful about using for exploration and growth.

Before deciding to interrupt your education, you need to ask yourself why you are taking this break in the first place. Are you feeling unsure as to your current educational path? Is your mental health starting to go down hill, is it plunging to rock bottom, or is it somewhere in between? Are you frustrated and perhaps a little alarmed at that amount of money you are spending on a career choice that you are less than sure of? Gap years can allow students such as yourself to step back, take a long, hard look at the current reality, and develop the tools and confidence you need to face the challenges and make informed decisions about your future. Thus, it’s important for you to be clear about why you want and need a break.

Once the “why” has been firmly defined, one possible way to use a gap year is by traveling and experiencing other cultures. Traveling during a gap year can improve your independence and broaden your perspective by giving you time to explore the world and what it has to offer. During my time off, I needed to work full-time to pay my bills, and being a full-time employee in her young adult years allowed me to understand the workforce and what it actually looks like to work a 9-5 schedule, how that feels and if that’s what I wanted for my future. Without taking the time to really figure out what it is you like and how you want your future to look, you end up somewhere and you’re not sure how you got there. Living and working in another culture will push you out of your comfort zone and expose you to new ideas and viewpoints. Before having worked my full-time position, I had only ever had colleagues that were also short-term, looking for the next step. Exposing myself to the workforce and the ideals of a person in their professional career was one of the best most defining experiences of my professional career. You’ll have a chance to define your own ideals and figure out who you really are and what you really want rather what you ought to want and do. 

Taking a gap year doesn’t automatically open your eyes to the world, but it does give you a chance to see it from a new perspective, a gap year allows you to slow down a little and see the world that’s been going on around you while you’ve been in a classroom. The progress you make is all dependent on yourself, but that’s a whole other lesson in itself for one to learn.

Gap years, do they help or hurt you?

Throughout any college students’ time at school, they may find themselves questioning everything from their major choice to their motivation to continue to their health, both physically and mentally. From a young age, we are taught that college should take four years, and if one was to throw in a gap year at anytime throughout those four years, it adds time to the college experience for that individual.
So why take a gap year? Why would anyone want to spend more time in school than he or she has to? According to a 2015 National Alumni survey, some of the top answers as to why people chose to take a year off were to gain life experiences and grow personally, to travel and experience other cultures, and to take a break from the academic track.
If you think about it, a person goes to school from the age of 4 until the age of 18. That is 14 years of education. If that person chooses to go on to get a bachelor or master’s degree, that number just increases. Taking a year off to explore oneself – what she or he likes and who he or she is- allows the individual to figure out what it is he or she truly wants his or her future to look like. The person also considers what the path will look like to getting there. Going to school full-time and often working part-time on the side doesn’t allow for much exploration or self-discovery.
Taking a year off can also address a huge problem in America right now, mental health. Roughly one third of students having difficulty performing academically due to depression and overwhelming anxiety. The recent pandemic that struck the world shifted the education system to entirely online for over a year. The toll on students having to learn virtually was noticeable, and professors had to re-frame their classes to fit the new classrooms they would be teaching in, while simultaneously dealing with immunodeficiencies in themselves and/or family members and trying to manage the stress and anxiety from the changes. The result is that gap years now should be more normalized than ever. Taking time off to prioritize one’s health, whether it be physical or mental, is a brave choice, but society has made it a difficult choice.
The decision of taking time off comes with an overwhelming wave of comments and questions. They range from “Good luck going back” to “What are you gonna do now?” From my own experience, there were questions of what my future plan was, as if taking time off insinuated that I was never going back. This was very discouraging, and for me, it lead to self- doubt and conflict in the process of deciding to take a break or not.
The gap-year experience can greatly impact one’s growth as an individual and citizen of society. It can allow for delayed healing to take place. Likewise, it can allow someone to find new perspectives and roles in society that she or he hadn’t considered prior to the decision. Young adults deserve the time and space in society to take care of themselves without negative feedback of whether they will or won’t go back to school. Young adults deserve to decide for themselves what their future looks like and the time it takes to figure that out.

Resource https://www.thesca.org/connect/blog/gap-years-what-does-research-say

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