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5 Benefits of Taking an Extended Time Off

Consider these options when you graduate if you are thinking about taking a gap year

By Mia MoralesPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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There are multiple benefits to taking time off to travel, discover new ambitions, or enhance your own sense of being in order to prepare for the next stages of your life. The concept of taking an extended time off from school or work has become progressively more popular and more widely acceptable in the past five to ten years. Increasingly, many new high school graduates, college students, and professionals are allowing themselves time between significant life changes for multiple various reasons. Recent studies show that there are many benefits to deferring important pivotal transitions in life. This usually occurs between two major life events such as after high school graduation and before college, between undergraduate school and graduate school, or after an extensive work project has been completed. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a full year; it can be three to six months or just a semester, depending on the situation and resources available. Many people these days can attest that simply stepping back from your current life path is a great way to refocus your energy and drive towards your overall self-development, career goals or professional paths.

1. Focus on Yourself

Postponing an expected commitment such as freshman year of college, and taking extra time before beginning new responsibilities allows you to reassess your short term and long term goals. Temporarily prolonging the duties of college or work opens the door to exploring your own personal interests. Beginning new hobbies, enhancing your physical fitness and learning new skill-sets can lead to fresh creative outlets and set new aspirations for where you want to direct your energy for becoming a better “you.”

2. Get Hands-On Learning in Your Areas of interest

Many suggest that it is beneficial to step away from academics for a semester or two and obtain an internship or a volunteer position within your targeted career field. This allows you to “learn the ropes” and get a true perspective on the realities you may face within that field. Hands-training will better prepare you for the workforce, help you find a suitable career and reduce unwanted surprises later.

3. Save Money and Prepare for College

Being a college student gets expensive at times. Taking time off and deferring your higher education for a short period of time will give you the opportunity to work more and help you save up for college expenses. Decreasing you college obligations will allow you to work one, or maybe even two, jobs and thus save, save, save! You’ll thank yourself later when you have less student debt to pay back.

4. See New Places

By taking what’s been labeled as a gap year, you will get the chance to travel abroad to learn about new cultures, experience new adventures and possibly pick up a new language. Submerging yourself in other cultures will help to change and improve your own outlook on life. A lot of popular places to travel are countries like Greece, Mexico,Thailand, etc. Or you may just want to simply travel within the United States to visit new cities to perhaps discover the perfect domestic vacation or the place where you might wish to relocate to later in life.

5. Develop Life Skills

Temporarily eliminating the pressures of college and reducing the demands of finding the right career will give a young person extra time to learn the “ins and outs” of being an adult. Valuable life lessons are achieved when you learn how to live a healthier life, budget your own expenses, cook your own meals, enhance your home improvement skills and build a deeper respect for yourself, your family, your friends and your neighbors.

Delaying college or the next step in your professional career is no longer viewed as “dilly-dallying” these days. Research shows that a planned time off from college or work can give you a deeper, more purposeful approach to the world around you, and can build integrity to pave a more fulfilling life. Temporarily removing the pressures of work or college can help you discover new career ambitions or develop the principles needed to advance yourself to the next level in your college or professional career.

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