Have you considered taking a gap year?

[heids]

P.S. Soz about the unreadable rainbows, I just had to try 'em out :')

Have you considered taking a gap year after year 12?

I've never regretted that I did.

Most of us get out of high school, what, 17 or 18, and honestly pretty clueless about who we are and where we want to go in life.  How the hell are you supposed to make a decision that seemingly affects your entire life from then on?!  A gap year gives you a time to breathe, think more, gain new experiences, learn more about yourself, and to put it bluntly, just grow up a bit.  A year later, with more experiences, insights and maturity under your belt, you're in way a better position to choose!

Besides, we’re young.  Life isn't a 100m Olympic sprint event.  You can take a bit of time to feel round – it's not 'wasting' your life (hey, might even save time swapping between courses later ).

Gap years definitely aren't for everyone; they can sure have problems.  And stepping off the beaten track can be scary... but also incredibly fun and rewarding!  Uni isn't all there is to life, LOL.  /compulsory fave quote of mine:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

What can you do during a gap year?

You have entirely free reign - the options are infinite!

Most commonly people work, travel or volunteer (at an animal shelter, overseas aid, teaching English, soup kitchens etc.), but hey, you could... write a book or three, tutor, start a business, fine-tune your octopus-cooking skills, learn an instrument or language, get into public speaking, do a TAFE course... anything that matters to you or you want to try out.  Or, there's heaps of agencies online keen to plan a jam-packed travel or volunteering gap year for you (at a... modest fee).

I'd also really recommend searching for experiences relevant to fields you're interested in, rather than just working at Maccas or Kmart, as you'll get a chance to see if you like them or not, and way more relevant experience on da CV.  In my case, my TAFE course and job are basically low-level nursing, hugely relevant and useful.  Check out TAFE courses, seriously.

Caution: make sure you have something productive planned - so easy to waste this year of brilliant opportunity.

Pros of taking a gap year

1 ||  Self-awareness and better career choosing: You get more time to think and explore who you are and where you want to go in life.  You may meet experiences that could radically change your career aims by discovering passions you didn't realise you had (or disillusioning you about others you thought you'd like haha).  Maturing and experiencing life outside school just helps you grow and understand yourself.

2 ||  Employability: working, volunteering, even travelling look super pretty in a resume and interview.  You'll have more experience, look more mature, and be able to harp on all those brilliant character traits and soft skills you developed.

3 ||  $$$: Obviously working nets a neat pot of money for uni, a car, moving out, the future, anything - especially great if you've got to earn your way or support yourself.

4 ||  Break from studying: Sometimes after 13 years of school it's just time to get out of the education system.  After year 12 you might hate studying and can't imagine another four years of it, but a break might bring you back motivated and eager to dig in.

5 ||  Adventure and challenge: Travelling, volunteering or daring projects empower you to experience life, challenge yourself, discover new things, have fun, and stretch your wings.

6 ||  Self-reliance and life skills:  Y'now.  All those soft skills - independence, self-motivation, organising, initiative, self-drive, cooking, blah blah, which makes you a better person, blah blah.

7 ||  More interesting person: I mean like... if you've travelled or volunteered or joined a band or done something super weird... obviously you'll have more to talk about than your average fresh-out-of-VCE student.   You'll probably have met cooler people too!

Cons of taking a gap year

1 ||  May lose 'study momentum': It can be really hard to get back and get motivated to study when you've been freestyling for a year and your study and concentration skills are getting rusty.  Beware: a high % of gap-year kids never end up at uni.

2 ||  Year behind: You're a year behind your friends, will graduate a year later, and everything will just take... a year longer.  Starting earlier gets it over and done with quicker.

3 ||  Laziness and boredom: Without the enforced timetable of school/a job, it's wayyy too turn into a full-time couch potato snacking on doritos in front of Netflix.  Without pressure and deadlines you can end up being useless and feeling unfulfilled.  Especially an issue if you're not generally a self-driven person or don't have anything planned.

What did my gap year look like?

Finishing VCE in 2014, my gap year aimed to finish an aged care certificate through an online TAFE over the holidays, and then work the rest of the year in aged care (before enrolling in nursing in 2016).  That course fell through and I spent months frustrated and bored, trying to figure out how to productively fill the time.  However, this pushed me into getting into a more hands-on course, starting to tutor, working for Engage Ed, and getting more addicted to AN.   Before I knew it, I was busier than I could take and enjoying it all!

What the year did for me:
- Got me a job that I love
- Confirmed that I was interested in the field of nursing
- Gave me lots of nursing-related skills
- Involved me in ATARNotes and VCE-related stuff in general which I've thoroughly enjoyed... if I'd gone to uni I probably wouldn't be a nat mod haha
- Let me be myself and learn and explore what I wanted to

In conclusion...

A gap year is a darn exciting opportunity... you can literally go ahead and do whatever you darn well want to do.

And that can be life-changing.

We'd all love to hear questions, comments, disagreements or personal stories from you!

[pi]

2 ||  Year behind: You're a year behind your friends, will graduate a year later, and everything will just take... a year longer.  Starting earlier gets it over and done with quicker.

I didn't do a gap year, but I've experienced this now by taking an Honours year during my med degree (with a gap-ish trip overseas at the end to celebrate! wohoo!) whilst the vast majority of my friends chose not to, which means I'll be one year behind them and may potentially work under them in the future. This is really *not* a big deal. If your mates actually like you and you bother to keep in touch etc, then it's really not a problem. And hey, even if they do move on, there will be new people to talk to and be friends with.I think people over-value this point and it becomes something that really makes them decide against a gap year or against taking up any sort of opportunity which means they "fall behind". Some opportunities, like a rowdy overseas gap year post year 12, only come up once in your life. Working 9-5 for 5 days a week will be an "opportunity" you'll get every week for 40+ years. As heidi says, sometimes it's good to take the road less traveled

[mahler004]

1 ||  May lose 'study momentum': It can be really hard to get back and get motivated to study when you've been freestyling for a year and your study and concentration skills are getting rusty.  Beware: a high % of gap-year kids never end up at uni.

2 ||  Year behind: You're a year behind your friends, will graduate a year later, and everything will just take... a year longer.  Starting earlier gets it over and done with quicker.

2) is overrated - a lot of people will end up taking a bit longer anyway for various reasons (they'll take 3.5/4 years, or longer). Some people do Honours and only graduate then, etc. You'll make new friends when you go to university anyway - if anything, taking a gap year will force you to make new friends when you start.

1) is underrated - a lot of people will enjoy earning money too much and find that they never get around going to uni. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - you don't need a degree to be happy, but it's something to keep in mind. Some people will go back, but find that they can't get back into it (a good percentage of people I know too a gap year, and I don't think was a terribly common problem, though).

On the point of earning money - good money when you're 20 or so isn't good money when you're 40, if you're staying in Australia and working.

If you're going overseas, you'll (probably) find that the buying power of your dollar is lower in Australia - especially if you're travelling too, don't expect to save too much.