When it comes to finishing our mandatory schooling, we can feel a little deflated. Not only have eighteen years of education finally come to a close, but we must begin the next chapter of our working life. This can be daunting, especially if starting a new job or heading to university. Sometimes we need a break.
In these instances, taking a gap year can be a wonderful time. This is your chance to learn more and experience the world around you, becoming more familiar with who you are, and your ever-developing tastes. No matter who you are, you should see the value of a gap year. This can help you in a myriad of ways. We’d like to suggest what those ways are, as well as recommend some wonderful tips for you to experience your gap year in style.
You’re only young once, and responsibilities are surely headed your way at a million miles an hour. Just be sure to enjoy the ride, and take some time for some inner reflection.
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Backpacking
Backpacking across a continent, especially Europe, can be a very cost-effective and excellent method of travelling during the first few months of your gap year. Not only will it give you a humble way of traversing cultures, but you can extend your time able to do this by working in select destinations. Not only that, but purchasing an interrail pass on the train system will give you plenty of freedom to explore countries at your wish. One pass is valid for a whole bunch of European countries, giving you plenty of time to explore and get absorbed in cultures that neighbour your own.
You can do this alone, but it’s much wiser, much more fun and safer to take a friend or two and head across the great landscapes of Europe together. Here, you can look out for each others safety, and become more absorbed and interested in the whole pursuit.
Holiday Homes
After your time saving up during the initial stages of your gap year, what better way to ring out the entire year than to celebrate in a gorgeous location in a beautiful holiday home? Not only will this provide you with a luxurious landing pad from which to explore your country of choice, but it will certainly be a far cry from the quiet struggle of interrailing and travelling around. Here, good old fashioned fun, sun, sand and seas are the only things you need to concern yourself with.
Spain holidays can help you get all three of these and more. Many young people are also very interested in experiencing a holiday in Spain, because let’s face it, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Some exported club brands have made their way here too, so if you truly need to get down and release some steam, this gorgeous country could be the place to do it. Not only that, but the history and culture here could take several lifetimes to explore and become fully versed in, so if you prefer a cultural slant to your holiday, you will be well catered for.
In the drudgery of experiencing life at home, looking after employment, grades, studying and family or relationship life, a large trip to this locale could be the only thing you truly need.
Take Time To Assess
While exploring, travelling and getting more in tune with yourself in the presence of new cultures is very important, it’s not all that’s required. Simply taking time to walking around in the local park, spending time in nature (away from the constant pull of digital entertainment and smartphones,) can help you finally grasp time to assess what it is you truly want.
A gap year is not simply a superficial time where you can explore and evade responsibility for a little while. It’s a time where you should have the space to become more in tune with yourself. Who are you, and what do you really want to experience? Sometimes we feel pushed into a certain direction by our parents, or by our peers. Sometimes, the thing we really want to try and achieve is blurred underneath this layer of expectation.
When you’re caught up in the development of your schooling or college experience, you might forget what your original intention was. Even if you’ve completed a degree before taking a gap year, you shouldn’t worry about choosing a path you truly would like to experience. Your degree or training may come in useful in more ways than you know, on a path that makes more sense to you.
Get Experience
Again, while a gap year is a time to relax and feel more comfortable (this space is important to gather your thoughts,) getting experience should be your secondary pursuit. When you have properly identified what you want to do, taking your free time and pushing it in a positive direction can do you a world of good. For example, if you want to work in marine biology, could you volunteer in an Aquariums bio-environment team to get some necessary forefront knowledge?
Having this on your CV will not only help you apply to better universities, but it will give you that foot in the door you may need. Of course, the experience can be defined in many many ways, so you shouldn’t feel pushed in one direction over another. Depending on your experience level, you could really do some wondrous good in making sure your experience is a force for future benefit, and not the opposite. Don’t be afraid to ask for payment if you’re conducting a responsibility which other paid staff should be carrying out, and don’t sell yourself short.
However, if you time this well, you could introduce yourself to a team who are more than happy to take you on prematurely, or when you finish your degree studies. These potentials make the effort of reaching out to these firms more than worth it.
With these tips, you will find that your life becomes much-expanded thanks to the efforts in your gap year. From experiencing new cultures to becoming more at one with your goals, all these pursuits will contribute and build together to develop you into a better person at the end of the year.
