By Maliyah Fick
Life after high school is typically mapped out for students: they get their diplomas, and then they go off to college. Wanting to seek higher education right out of high school is what’s expected of us. The thought of taking a gap year, which is a year off from school before going to college, is typically frowned upon by adults.
Many students are advised against taking a gap year because we’re usually told it’s likely we won’t go back to school after taking the time off. Some of us are told we’ll get too comfortable not going to school. However, this shouldn’t be the mindset because gap years can provide a lot of opportunities for students, such as working or traveling.
There are students who plan on paying for their college tuition all on their own. It’s no secret that this is a difficult goal to accomplish on minimum wage paychecks, especially since students are only permitted to work part-time hours. A gap year allows them to work full-time for a year so that they can save up money for their tuition. Without tuition money, how would a student be able to attend college in the first place?
For other students, taking their time and living their lives first is the ideal route. Once college starts, so do our lives as adults. We focus on getting our degree, and once we do that, we focus on getting our first real job in that field. Traveling first allows students to take a break, explore, find themselves before they decide on what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
Taking a gap year can also be beneficial when it comes to a student’s mental health. The first part of our education can be brutal, from schoolwork to the struggles of growing up and attempting to find ourselves. There are students who don’t know what they want to major in, but they jump headfirst into college anyways. This leaves students feeling lost and pressured to find a major when they could just take a break and figure out their passions. With the amount it costs to attend college, students owe it to themselves to go when they feel that they are ready and to go for something that they are passionate about.