The problem with life these days is that it is extremely fast paced. Even from the tender age of 14, students in competitive societies like Bangladesh are subjected to the grind: days full of school, extra tutoring and outer-curricular activities. People work week in and week out, day after day, until they get to the top of their corporate ladder. Everybody has a limit, mentally and physically.
As we have seen with our parents, and their parents, people would hit this limit at around retirement age. Now I don’t know for sure if people have just gotten weaker or life has gotten more competitive, but folks seem to be hitting that limit far sooner than before. This leads to students dropping out of university courses, quitting jobs all to get a whiff of freedom before the hunger for money calls. To avoid burning out, millennials started taking gap years and now, at least in western countries, it is a common term among recent graduates.
What is a gap year?A gap year is simply a year taken out of your “planned” academic path before you jump into another major segment of your life. There is no hard and fast rule as to what work you should do in your gap year and that precisely is the magic of it. A gap year should ideally allow you to explore your own strengths, weaknesses and passions which might not have been possible inside a classroom. When it comes to gap year opportunities, the sky's the limit. You can use this year to intern at an organisation, volunteer for an NGO, and if your budget allows it, travel.
What to do in a gap year?A simple rule is to change things about a bit. So don’t go back to your daily summer schedule of lazing around. While a gap year is important to “turn off” and take a breather from your day to day grind, it is imperative to stay in the game. A good rule of thumb when considering what to do is to evaluate if it will give you the opportunity to gain new skills and experiences, which you can add to your CV. However, this is a gap year, so there is really no convention to hold on to here. Do not be afraid to take risks because you will never get the opportunity to learn from failure without implications on your academic or professional future. If you had a business idea you wanted to pursue, go ahead an do that before the responsibilities of life hit you.
Planning your gap yearAs with most areas of life, success will come with planning. If you just finished an undergraduate degree, a gap year will give you the perfect opportunity to explore different areas of your field before deciding on a graduate degree. If you are considering pushing your academic or professional career back a year, make a plan of what you want to do for every month. This will prevent you from ending up on the couch after your friends leave you after summer.
Should you take a gap year?I have seen a lot of students make an amazing experience out of their gap year, but I have also seen a fair share of students who end up wasting a year out of their lives. Remember, a gap year won't be as fun as summer with your friends. Most of your friends will have moved on and a gap year will mean you are a year behind your peers. A common point among parents and educators alike is that a gap year can have a damaging effect on the study skills that you have spent more than a decade building.
However a gap year is recommended by a lot of universities, Harvard being one of them. It prevents students from burning out throughout the course. Moreover, gap year students are known to bring fresh, new ideas to the classroom.