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| Why take a gap year? |
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| Author : Sarah McCrum, Manager, Phenomena Academy
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| Created : 25 Apr 2003
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| Last Revision : 25 Apr 2003
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Why take a GAP year?
Just think about it – by the time you have finished school you have probably been in full-time education for more than 12 years. That’s 12 years of standardised curriculum, 12 years of school rules, 12 years of operating in large groups, 12 years in classrooms and 12 years working with people all the same age as you. In fact it is 12 years of sameness.
This is not to deny that some of school is interesting, or that there is anything wrong with people of the same age. But we live in a world where people range from 0 to 100, but we spend the most significant learning years of our life with one group of people who are not more than one year older or younger than us. The rest of the world works in organisations of every different size and description, but school classrooms look remarkably similar. Other people do a huge variety of different jobs in different ways, but the school curriculum means that young people all have to learn the same thing, regardless of their interests, natural ability or life goal.
All these factors suggest that it would be a good idea to experience something different as soon as possible. For most young people the first chance for this is after leaving school and before going to university. In the UK it is very common for students to take a year out, or gap year, before university.
More than 90% of gap year students travel – they take the chance to do what they want, where they want and when they want - the perfect antidote to school. Parents may be a little alarmed when they see their kids heading off with a rucksack, whatever money they have saved, too much confidence, and no idea where they’ll be next week, but there’s not much they can do except ask them to call when they find a phone box, and remind them to use condoms. Then it’s just a question of faith and wondering when they’ll come back.
Independent travel is definitely liberating. The further away you are from your home culture the easier it is, in one way. If you are in deepest China or in a bus in Malaysia you can spot another backpacker a mile away. It becomes easy to walk up to someone sitting at a restaurant in Indonesia and ask if you can join them, or to find a travel companion for a few days. There is an amazing sense of freedom in being able to make new friends so easily, and being able to leave the ones you don’t like.
Of course there are risks, and some students come home having picked up tropical diseases or having all their money stolen. Others can tell hair-raising stories about strange encounters with people they would never meet on home territory! Perhaps that explains why the vast majority (more than 90% in the UK) travel to Australia and New Zealand. It’s less foreign, although there’s plenty of adventure available, of a more physical nature.
There is another group of students who get involved in volunteering projects – anything from teaching in a school in Africa to an environmental project in Costa Rica. These students usually pay to take part, and enjoy the satisfaction of organised projects with pre-training, debriefing and the chance to make a real contribution to a community very different from their own.
The other popular gap year activity, at least for a part of the year, is to learn something different – cooking, history of art in Italy, film production in New York or a new language.
The mark of a successful gap year is that you become more open-minded and learn to taste life in a different way. Many young people have no idea, except from pictures on television, what it is really like in other countries and cultures. When you’ve been at home and school for 18 years it is hard to imagine that people not only look different but they behave and think differently too.
Just imagine something simple like taking a bus. In Rio de Janeiro you need to make sure you get past the bus conductor’s gate as quickly as possible – the back area of the bus, before passing through the gate is where you are most likely to be robbed. In Bali you are trying to find space amongst the chickens, huge baskets, people and general confusion. In Zagreb many people don’t appear to travel with tickets – in Paris if you try the same thing you will be fined FF200 immediately. In the Philippines you prefer not to look at the road because it is hard to believe the bus will stay on it as you tear through the mountains, round blind hairpin bends, with no idea when the next bus will appear from the other direction. As you travel from country to country you must learn how to adapt your behaviour, because it doesn’t work, for example, to use English queuing conventions in Italy. You simply won’t get a place in the bus at all if you don’t push and shove your way like everyone else.
The key when planning a gap year, is to look at what you really want. Is it really adventure you want or are you just trying to run away from a boring life (in which case don’t overstretch yourself until you are more used to freedom). Do you want to meet new and different people, or do you want to spend most of your time with people the same age and background as you? Do you want to enjoy yourself by having no constraints, or can you enjoy yourself more when your life is more structured? Do you want to learn something? Do you want to make a contribution? Do you want new experience? Do you want to earn money? Do you want to prepare yourself for your next step or forget your future for a while?
If you can answer these questions (and any more that occur to you) you can more easily choose a programme that really suits you and make the most of a year out. There are lots of organisations and websites that can help you, most of them British. Just remember that it is important in life to gain experience. Too many young people, particularly the intelligent and successful ones at school, struggle later in life because they don’t know how to live. They can only study in a limited area where they feel safe and know the rules.
You can survive this serious life for a while, but eventually you will either explode or become sick. This is not supposed to be negative, but it is a warning. Take a chance to explore more of life and learn how to deal with reality. Meet different people and find out how the world works outside the school curriculum.
Sarah McCrum
Manager, Phenomena Academy
21 April 2003
Phenomena Academy, near Te Anau, is offering a special gap year programme this year (2003) which combines learning, travel and community work. The students at the Academy have offered to design, build and raise money for a new local health centre. You can join them and take their Life Design Foundation Course at the same time. It’s ideal preparation for university or a first job. Details are on: www.phenomenaacademy.org (look for gap year special on the home page)
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