Arguments For And Against Taking A Gap Year
Is a gap year worth it? People can see gap years from different points of views. A chance to explore and enjoy life or an exercise in self-indulgence. I’m going to be talking about different arguments such as expenses, skills, home or away and benefits from it. I chose to do this topic as it’s relevant to my age group and I find all the different reasons to take one quite interesting.
One of the main topics that come to mind when you think about a gap year is the cost. A pro about the expenses during a gap year is that you have time to gain money and to financially prepare for the future. During a gap year you have the opportunity to get a job and save some money, whether it’s for a course you want to do, to go travelling, for the future, for a house or maybe even a car. You can gain experience from having a job during your gap year, maybe people skills or possibly managing skills.
A downside about expenses is that depending on what you do during a the gap year, such as travelling, it can become very expensive. If you go travelling you’re going to have a fair bit of money for flights, accommodation, attractions and it all depends on the length of time you go away for and the places you decide to visit. A gap year for some people sometimes just ends up turning into a very lengthy and pricey holiday.
Another topic which is often heavily considered is that it’s good to have a year of doing no academic work, maybe if you don’t feel as if you are ready for the future or college just yet. It can give you time to complete your passions or even just to decide what you really want to do if you don’t have a career path in mind. Some people don’t feel like they are ready to commit to something yet, especially if they know it’s going to take a number of years, a gap year could do them justice because it’s time to figure out exactly what they want.
Sometimes people are put off gap years at the thought of being a year behind or that it ends up being a complete waste of time. Being a year behind can put people wrong since people who they have been with since they were young are now a year ahead. Relationships could start to drift. By the time you start university they might have made a new group of friends so you could be the least of their worries to look out for, so you might feel lonely.
On a gap year you have the chance to learn new skills. Whether it’s a teaching course in Asia, a voluntary year in Morocco, living in France for a year to improve your French skills, or maybe you were promoted in your job so you would gain leadership skills. Whatever the skill you have learnt is, it will look good on your cv. Learning skills, speaking skills, organization skills and teamwork skills, whatever it is your future employer, or whoever looks at your university application should be impressed. Whatever the skill may be, it may be flourishing as a person, maturing or even becoming more independent. They should prepare you for the future, you might even be able to put your new skills to use at University or college.
A major issue that can arise from having a gap year is losing the momentum to learn and work. There is a possibility that you can forget how to do things such as writing and revising. If you think about how you feel rusty when you go back to school after a two week holiday, imagine what it would be like if you didn’t do any academic style work for over a year. Possibility of having a lazy approach towards work and put things aside to do at a later date instead of doing things instantly when the information is fresh in your head.
A lot of young people take a gap year to go travelling. They seek the change as it’s likely to be the only lengthy holiday you will ever be able to take. It’s also a good time to relax and look towards planning for the future. An example of what people do is travel around European cities, interrailing across Europe and adventuring Japan, China, Australia and so much more. People seek the chance as its unlikely there going to find themselves time to go half way across the world again. Some people even change their mind on what career they want to do and end up taking a completely new path. Gap years the best time to pursue things you want to do and reflect on who you want to become which reflects back on how you might not feel ready to go away to study yet.
However, if you do go travelling, there are disadvantages such as becoming bored, homesick, something going wrong and running out of money. It’s unlikely that you’re going to become bored on a once in a lifetime opportunity but it’s always a possibility. It could be your first time away from home without family, you could get into an accident and maybe the money you have been saving is starting to run out so you would start to stress on how you’re going to finish travelling with the money you have left.
There are many points on a gap year which you can agree and disagree about such as, I disagree that you can become bored and that a gap year is a waste of time. Whatever the reason for you having a gap year, from maybe not feeling ready yet or getting rejected from university when you first applied, you can surely find a way to benefit from a year away from doing school work. Statistics do actually say ‘90% of students who took a gap year returned to college within a year’, so that shows that most people do stick to their individual plans and that a gap year possibly was worth it for them to escape responsibilities for a while.
