Are Gap Years Helpful Before College?

As a student, I believe that taking a break before setting a course for the future, is liberating for both the body and mind. School pressures students into being their best, but how can a student be at their best when they barely get a rest from tests, schoolwork, and homework. Gap years have benefits that can help students become successful adults.

Personal Reflection

The incredible experiences of gap years will expose you to an array of new experiences, allowing you to decide which are the most appealing. Gap years give you the tools and time to look deeper into your soul and uncover your ambitions.

Development

Growing is a part of life. As a person, you need to be able to enjoy life to experience it. So gap years give people a chance to take chances and learn how to be responsible. It gives people more opportunities to grow into an adult.

Increased Maturity

The idea here is that students who never take the time for self-inquiry, never have the opportunity to truly identify what makes them who they are. Students who take a gap year are far more likely to have inquired about their own definitions of success, rather than taking as ‘given’ those that are imparted by their culture, schools, friends, media, etc. What do you actually want out of life? For some people, having seen great poverty but also great happiness and family, they desire less the financial and material and more the filial and relationships. But without having ever inquired about your own personal reasons, they become less significant. Students have taken a gap year are usually subsequently exposed to myriad different ways to ‘do this thing called life’, which includes seeing the different ways that people measure success. Students who take a gap year are also exposed to their own consequences.

Increased Self-Confidence

The only way to build confidence is through experience.

The only way to gain experience is by actually doing things. The only way to actually do things, is to bravely take a risk and conquer a hard thing. Of course, there are risks, and then there are risks. Gap Years provide a way for students to take small, calculated risks as they develop in their confidence. A well-chosen program will have this built into experiential learning.

Helps With Human Interaction

Gap year programs teach students immensely about both interpersonal communication and introspective reflection. This in turn is reflected in how students build relationships with others, and how they can improve their engagement with the outside world.

Develops Communication Skills

Most students admittedly spend a majority of their time at home with peers. During a gap year, students meet and interact with people of all ages from very young children to seniors. Generations of people become their network, and they’re more likely to want to continue to engage with older/younger people after their years abroad.

Increases Interest In Places

A gap year gives students a chance to learn more about the world and see other cultures. It gives students more opportunities to learn and experience their surroundings and enjoy them more than staying home and inside without anything to do.

Develops Respect Of Cultures

Nowadays, students would do something that offends a certain culture. If you really wanted to take a gap year, you would want to avoid offending anyone in the place you are traveling to.

Helps Acquired Skills For A Successful Career

There are plenty of reasons why you should consider taking a Gap Year. Finishing high school, and moving on to college is a pretty big step. You should take some time to mark this transition, and really internalize the importance of this moment. A Gap Year shouldn’t be just a period in which you can take some time to relax, though that’s pretty important as well. You should use this opportunity to figure out what you’re going to do further on and prepare for your future career.

Helped Find Purpose In Life

Sometimes a student would not really want to go into college as soon as they get out of high school. If they had a break to clear out their minds, they might have found something that they wanted to do and major in it.

Helps You Get Financially Stable

It helps show a student that they have to find a way to make money and to be financially stable. It gets students ready for taxes and other living expenses.

Increases Readiness For College

Most students will miss learning in school. And it shows them that ‘once you have something you never get it back’ logic. It makes them want to go back to school.

Influences Learning New Language

Going to a new country, learning a new language, and being able to communicate with other people and cultures are the most exciting things to be able to do. Being able to speak to the locals of the country can help a student learn more about the place you are at.

Gap years do help improve students’ happiness and their lives.