My Experience Taking a Gap Year after High School

When it come to attending college and pursuing a higher education, there are so many different factors that come into play regarding what experience is right for each person. It is widely reinforced in my experience that college is an experience most people benefit from, and that those who do not attend college, wish that they had. With this in mind, I have always assumed that I would go to college after finishing high school and this just made sense to me. I did not know how I was going to pay for it and I did not know what major I would pursue, but in the back of my mind I just figured I would go to college because that was what I was supposed to do from my perspective.

So naturally, I kept good grades throughout my high school years, and in junior year, joined a program called running start. This program allowed me to actually complete my associate’s degree by the time I graduated high school, finishing with both a high school diploma as well as a college degree. This was a no brainer for me and while I don’t think it is right for everyone, it was a great opportunity for me to save money down the road as well as time, being able to transfer into a four year university right after high school already halfway to a bachelor’s.

So, coming into my senior year of high school, I was considered ahead of many of my peers in a lot of ways, and should not have had much to worry about, theoretically. The route that my brain went however, was taking on a realization that I had to have the rest of my life figured out, and now. I decided that I was going to have to choose my major right away since I was actually already two years into college, and I had not a clue about what I wanted to do for a job. It was right about this time that I became more self-aware of the fact that pretty soon my life is in my own hands, and I must figure out a way to create a lifestyle for myself that I am proud of, and enjoy. During this time, I found myself taking on tons of pressure, feeling like I could not find a desirable choice, because while I knew of some fields that interest me, I did not know what the day-to-day activities of those jobs would entail and whether I would enjoy or be good at them.

With this in mind, I did not want to go off to school and spend lots of time and money, on an investment which I feared would not actually pay off in any way shape or form, and I would live a life, working a job that I hated because when I was eighteen years old, I made the decision to pursue this certain career path. I had applied to two different schools, with the intention of going to the University of Manoa, in Hawaii and was accepted and that was beginning to look like where life was taking me. But as the date neared, I just couldn’t allow myself to travel to an island, thousands of miles from my house, and rack up thousands of dollars in debt (many more thousands than the miles from my house), just to possibly obtain a degree I either don’t use or don’t find rewarding.

So here was the alternative: Gap. Year.

What have I learned taking this gap year for myself?

A ton!

What it all boils down to, was having time. I had time to think. I had time out of school where I had no date in front of me for what I had to get done. I was still living with my parents and saving money in this regard, working a close to minimum wage job, and just taking my foot off of the gas for the first time, really ever. This time was so invaluable to me in so many ways, because I was able to think about so much that I had not thought of before, and make more rational decisions after having more rational realizations.

Of course there have been ups and downs in this experience, and there were times where it was hard to watch many of my friends leave to different states to go move on with their life while I stayed in my home town making pizzas and feeling stagnant. But throughout this time, I begin to see much more clearly. I was finally able to take this pressure off and realize that I did not need to have the rest of my life figured out anytime soon or for that matter, ever. At any point in life, what is important is that you are putting in effort if you want something, and if down the road, you realize your priorities may have changed, that’s totally fine. Pivot. Take into account that you are trying to set yourself up well for the future, and start setting yourself up as best as you can, if that is where you want to go.

Here's where I am now, and maybe you can appreciate what I am trying to offer. I have always loved math, and have always loved vehicles and learning about machines, understanding them, and then working on them in some way or another. I have taken time to ask what I enjoy and where I have skills and interests, and then have taken a path accordingly. I want to become an engineer and hopefully find a career that is rewarding to me for many years to come and sets me up for a lifestyle that I find fulfilling. I have enrolled in a college closer to home that is less expensive than my previous ambitions, and am willing to fail. At the end of the day, if I go off to college, and get this degree, and never use it to achieve any job, so be it. It may be a total waste of my resources, and I may never go back to college, and take a completely different route to live my life. But that is okay. There are no right answers, and we as humans can always reassess and figure out other ways to meet our needs which vary greatly from person to person.

Oh and some of the other benefits, which I will not get into extensively but will mention, include having had more time living in the house to focus on my relationships with all of my family, picking up hobbies like learning the guitar, and starting to draw and work on cars, and I have even planned a trip to go to Mexico to live their for a few months and see how little money I can spend while I am there, and experience a different way of life for some time to just see more of the world than the state I have grown up in.

To close, I just want to encourage anyone and everyone to do their best to relax and take some of the pressure that they may take on from various sources, and to try to listen to their inner thoughts, and figure out what speaks to them, and pursue paths that will be rewarding to them, and hopefully in turn be able to help those around us more as well. Thank you for taking the time! :)