Why a Gap Year? Should be a yes!
Are you in a dilemma whether to take a gap year or no? Here are a few benefits from my experience taking a gap year before you attend college. Benefits that no educational institute will provide you with and make you a better student and eventually a better individual.
Taking a gap year between your 12th to college or your Grad schools to Masters can be a life-changing discussion if done correctly.
Council on International Educational Exchange says Harvard College has seen a 33 per cent increase in the number of their incoming students taking gap years.
There are a ton of way to spend your Gap Year from spending time volunteering, to travelling or interning or start your own business. Whatever you decide to do taking a gap year is living your life out of the system making your own decisions and doing a thing in an unorthodox way. Here are reasons to sway you to take a gap year:
Time:
Time to introspect, evaluate or just be with yourself
Finally, without peer pressure, you decide what you want to do. This time can help you understand your strengths and weakness. This is also the time to get in touch with your Mental Health. While travelling or volunteering or just finding your purpose you can finally find a good space of mind to be. This year for most can help you push out of the comfort zone and also enlighten a few of your hidden talents and insecurities.
After constant academical cycles for past 18–20 years, you can take out time to be with yourself to explore different colleges, passions, hobbies. For many of those who haven’t figured out what field to go in or what profession to choose. This is the perfect time to try out whatever you want to do before committing to an educational institution.
Learn
Your chance to learn skills that you wanted to but never had time to:
You have got this golden opportunity to learn the skill that you deeply desired to. From learning a new language to boxing to a new hobby there is everything that you wanted to learn. You can learn cooking, gardening, pottery or even pole dancing! There is an array of skills out there to choose from and unbelievable happiness and satisfaction to learn.
Many of these skills such as public speaking or learning German will be a plus in your resume and professional careers as well as a big asset in your personal life. Some can end up being a stress buster after a hectic day of work. And Yoga and boxing can lead to health benefits.
All in all, learn the skill is an addition to your life’s resume even if sometimes not your professional one.
Family and friends:
Being around your loved ones can be more therapeutic than therapy. In our busy school schedules, we don’t spend quality time with our fam sometimes even under the same roof. This is the time to take those trips you have been planning for ages
Travel:
Travelling. Everyone has wanderlust but many times in the societal loop from education to careers to marriage to everything else. Most don’t get a chance to see the world. This is your chance to travel to a destination you always wanted to. It goes have to be a luxury vacation maybe just a gateway to understanding different cultures, people and food. Travelling helps you understand the enormity of the world. In a year, you can travel a hell lot. There is a varied way to travel on a budget, you decide to couch or live with a host family or Airbnb. Well, the “inspiring life-changing moments” don’t happen inside a cubicle.
Plan your future:
You don’t need to have to know all the answers right away. There are more a ton of career options out there and none of the greatest of all times had it figured out. College can be a stressful time for students, especially for those who are participating in a program that doesn’t meet their needs or interests. Many students feel drained between addressing university teachers, maintaining personal commitments, managing financial aid debt and trying to have fun all at the same time. Temporarily dynamical course and doing one thing wholly new can offer a much-needed psychological break. Students will take a step back from what they’re doing and deeply admit wherever they need to travel in life.
Internships or Part-Time Job:
College costs are high and Student loan crisis is as real as ever. Taking on an internship or part-time work to save money will be a game-changer. It also can place you into an operating mindset before landing a career job or progressing to school.
Also, it’s your opportunity to understand the industry you want to be a part of and work you need. It will help you understand the kind of portfolios you need to build and also the skills you need to inculcate!
Experience:
Your life doesn’t have to be like anyone else. To-do lists are great but spontaneity has its charm. Live the moment, Sip the coffee, talk to strangers, smell some flowers and open yourself to the world of possibilities. If you just hustle and tell yourself to get your shit together you can enjoy the small joys of life. It’s okay to pause and experience.
Destress:
Burnout is when you have done something for so long that you start paying less attention to it and start looking for ways to avoid it. This is not conducive to a successful college experience, so being able to take a gap year will give you the time off that you need to recuperate and enter your faculty life reinvigorated and prepared to be told.
For some, yoga or meditation might do the trick. For others spending time in nature or reading their favourite novels would bring them zen. Also, you’re young-don’t forget to have fun and enjoy your youth. It’s a marathon after all, not a sprint.
Independence:
A gap year can be a trial i.e a chance to try things before college or it can be a much-needed chance to be responsible for yourself. You learn new things after you square measure to blame for creating the foremost of your gap year. Taking a niche year means that having the prospect to grow your independence and obtain to understand yourself outside of the college setting.
Read, Watch, Read repeat:
Just read, read, read, watch and read some more. There are a ton of amazing books out there to choose from- fiction, non-fiction, psychology, politics, business or sci-fi. Reading will educate you. Read self-help books. Read from your field experts. Read about people, culture and variety of things. And if you are not a reader just start reading fiction.
Watch Documentaries. TV Shows. Movies and more. This is the time to enrich yourself with knowledge. Do some heavy reading during your time off and you will begin to see yourself as a lifelong learner.
Meet New People:
This is an opportunity to meet people out of non-educational setting which can lead to life long friendship from a varied age group. We lose our college friends as it’s a more circumstantial friendship. Whereas during travels or skill class you make friendship based on different connect and reasons.
Job Experience:
This is a wonderful way to obtain work experience that will not only serve you well during your time in college but will also make it easier for you to obtain a career after graduation. This proves that you not only have the knowledge to be successful in your career but that you also have the work ethic and experience to be successful. Employers will be a lot more likely to hire you if you have work experience-even if it is just entry-level or an internship-than they would someone that holds only a degree.
Build your CV:
With a gap year before college, you can do many things that will build up your career, making you even more marketable to employers than someone that just has a degree. Things such as volunteer work, sports and recreational hobbies are all things that most employers will take into consideration when they are hiring a new employee.
Don’t duel for too long. Just go for it. You won’t regret it!
Originally published at http://thoughtmartini.com on November 5, 2019.
