Gap Years Are For (Nearly) Everyone

By Alyssa Tompkins

One option that will come up in your life--perhaps your senior year--is the gap year. Taking a year for traveling, working, volunteering, or a conglomeration of all three, is now becoming something that seniors look into more and more. These so-called gap years are great for (nearly) everyone.

Now you may be asking: is a gap year right for me? There is no direct answer to this question, but there are reasons that students take a gap year. One of these reasons is burnout. After going through so many years (13 long years!) of rigorous school work, it’s nice for people to participate in society in another way besides just as students. Another reason for a gap year is self discovery outside of the traditional settings such as school. Doing something fulfilling outside of the classroom can bring you closer to yourself and your interests, allowing you to be more focused and ready when you return to school.

Gap years are great for most people and should be taken seriously as an option because there are so many things that you can do in the midst of a gap year. The year is fulfilling in different ways for everyone. For many, the year is emotionally or spiritually fulfilling as one finds themself along the way to attending secondary education. According to PBS, many students who take a gap year “come to realize that there is life after college”. This realization allows students to feel more at peace with what life will bring to them both during and after college, thus allowing them to feel more fulfilled.

Furthermore, gap years are great for nearly all students because of their versatility. A student can do anything from work to adventure during their time off. There are no limits to the different experiences that a student can enjoy during the break from the stresses of schooling. If you are taking a gap year to stay home and work to raise up money for your next endeavor in life, you can totally do so. You can travel with an organization you enjoy to help others, or you can simply travel. Whatever you want to occupy your time with during a gap year is great, so long as it furthers your process of self discovery in some way, shape, or form.

But, there are also times that gap years are not the best for students. For instance, there are students who go on a gap year before college and never return to college afterwards, no matter how much planning went into college admissions. Gap years also--depending on what you do during the year--cost a lot of money. College is expensive enough, and filling your time with travel and new experiences is just as expensive as college, if not more.

While the cost of gap years are important to look into, the gap year itself usually turns out to be worth more than what you had initially paid for. PBS argues that gap years may cost a lot, but the emotional and or physical rewards are far greater than the money spent to achieve them. Yes, it costs a lot of money to fly to a foreign country and stay there for a period of time, but simply being in a new destination is enough to open your eyes to things you would have never seen or experienced before. These new experiences are worth the cost and the time.

Gap years are great opportunities to see and do new things, but they are also chances to get lazy and lose track of your goals. When deciding to take a gap year or not, know what kind of student you are before you decide.