Why you should take a gap year

Lily Gusler, Feature Editor

I want to take a gap year between high school and college to learn more about myself (which sounds very cliche but is true), work helping other people through a program, like Serving and Learning Together (SALT), travel and get away from a life full of organized learning. Taking a year to yourself can honestly change your perspectives and could alter your plan for later in life. Don’t feel like you need to do what everyone else is doing, just know that you are happiest doing what you want and love.

One of the many benefits to taking a gap year would be to figure out what you want to do later in life, or to actually do something for the world. For example, you could volunteer with Greenpeace, or volunteer for SALT. While you’re giving back you would get more knowledge about yourself. You would still be learning, but you would learn in an unorthodox way.

Another great thing about a gap year is that you have so much more time on your hands. If you needed money, you could spend your days working, and still have your evenings to do things you want, like reading or having dinner with your friends.

The most exciting part about having a gap year is probably the opportunity to travel and explore more of the place you call your home. There are so many beautiful and enriching places you could go. You could backpack the Appalachian Trail, or take a roadtrip and see all the glorified sights you read about in magazines. Think about it. Actually sleeping in a hammock in the redwood forests or suntanning on a beach in Hawaii without a care in the world, just you and the sea.

My last point about how wonderful gap years are is that you can get away from a life full of organized learning. You sit at a desk for who knows how many hours and slowly lose yourself in the routine. This system really works for some people, but I know that, for me, it’s important to learn real skills, not geometry.

There are so many reasons I think I will take a gap year when senior summer finally rolls around, and I also think that you should too. You never know what it could lead to.