Gap Year (for your younger siblings)

For your younger siblings...


It's a natural feeling. Most people feel it several times throughout their lives. Indeed, it's a nice fantasy, but it's not realistic to consider the ways things would have worked out "If I only knew then what I know now." But there is a loophole. There is a way to gain that precious experience and knowledge early in life; it is possible to find wisdom and enlightenment before you reach that stage of "if I only knew then..." It just takes a moment of courage.

I've had this conversation with many of my friends. They've all agreed that they wish they had known about the idea of the Gap Year before they had gone to college. To most people in the United States, especially parents of high school-aged children, the Gap Year sounds like a terrible risk, a foolish decision based upon an idealistic whim. But for those that have the courage to give the Gap Year a chance, the rewards have the potential to be endless.

The idea is fairly simple: take a year off to travel and learn, to experience and grow, and enroll in college when you have a foundation of real world education. That statement by itself can easily be dismissed by society as the "flaky rhetoric of a college drop out," or the "flimsy metaphysics of a Sedona psychic." But travel and knowledge, experience and growth, and invaluable wisdom aren't flaky.

Most college freshman, sophomores, even juniors, and sometimes seniors have no idea what they want to pursue in college. Many college students have no passion or direction in any particular field. At any college or university throughout the country, it's fairly common to hear something like: "I don't really know why I became a sociology major; it just seemed interesting," or "Environmental studies seemed interesting, but I don't plan on using it after I graduate." Many of these college graduates have absolutely no idea what to pursue once they have their degree in their hand and their graduation ceremony behind them. Unfortunately, many of them settle for the stale and stagnant jobs that most seasonal employees consciously avoid.

Additionally, how many students enroll in college or university courses only to drop out after the first semester or two? According to MSNBC, only 54% of all college and university freshman will complete their degree within six years. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 30% of college freshman leave after their first year, while nearly 50% never graduate.

Those numbers are sobering. Nearly half of all college and university freshman won't graduate? One has to ask why. Why do so many students leave the college classroom? The answer is not black and white, and I can't begin to know all the factors to each individual's decision to forego their college degree. But some of the major factors include the lack of money, the lack of passion, or the lack of inspiration. I would understand at this point if someone asked how the Gap Year related to any of this. How does the Gap Year correlate with freshman retention and graduation rates? The answer is the idea of travel and knowledge, experience and growth, wisdom and independence. Most seasonal employees I talk to agree that their learning curves shot up at almost a 90 degree angle during their first seasonal job. Sure, many of them had read books, graduated from high school, and taken college classes. But their sphere of knowledge and experience revolved around only what was familiar. Their eyes and minds were opened dramatically throughout the course of their first seasonal job. They met people from nearly every state in the country. They befriended international employees working on J1 work visas from locations like Latvia and Bulgaria, Kenya and Kazakhstan, Australia and South Africa, or Brazil. They were exposed to conservation movements, the tourism industry, the medical field, literature, entrepreneurship, dialogue and diplomacy, photography, journalism, and beyond. They began to earn their own paychecks, save their own money, and make their own consequential decisions. In other words, they learned rapidly and grew exponentially.

A lot of students might assume that the Gap Year is inaccessible, totally off limits to someone in their situation. The only people that can take a Gap Year are those whose families can afford it. Not true. All that is needed is enough money to buy a single one-way ticket. A one-way airplane ticket. Bus ticket. Train ticket. Whatever. Throw in a small amount of spending money for snacks or an extra pair of socks, and that's it. Once you arrive at your location of seasonal employment, the money will begin to take care of itself. Work starts quickly, if not immediately. Most seasonal jobs provide housing and an employee dining room that is deducted from each paycheck. If you're wise with your money, you can quickly accumulate a small savings by putting aside large portions of each paycheck. If you're very wise, you can use the money accumulated at your first seasonal job to travel during the fall. Some seasonal employees save their money and travel somewhere nearby: the beaches of California, the deserts of Utah, the major cities of the east coast. Others use their saved money to travel to any corner of the world: Cambodia, Malawi, Spain. And others simply save the money they've made and return home for a month or two to visit family and friends.

After autumn, seasonal employees head back to work. Common winter jobs are found throughout the mountains at ski resorts, while others are found where it stays warm during the winter: Florida, Hawaii, Arizona, etc. A similar process is repeated. Money begins to accumulate after saving portions of each paycheck, and again it becomes possible to travel in the spring using the money that's been saved all winter. After traveling, the process is repeated, as seasonal employees hunt for new jobs in different locations of the world, while others return to a specific location that they've fallen in love with.

After this second summer, individuals finishing their Gap Year then enroll in a college or university with a confident sense of self and newfound insight. What an advantage! How many college freshman have that kind of experience and independence? Not enough, that's for sure. How many college freshman can honestly say that they know what it is like to be financially independent, can talk about their close friends from Bucharest, Romania, or can remember what it was like to travel independently in a foreign country? How many college freshman have been exposed to movements and ideas that have inspired them or have worked with real-world salient issues such as species reintroduction in a national park? How many college freshmen will be passionate about a movement, a cause, an idea, or a subject? Which college freshmen will take advantage of their opportunities in the classroom and which ones will simply waste the money spent on their tuition?

How many college freshmen are in college simply because that's what was expected? How many of them will pursue a degree for which they have no passion? How many of them will pursue a degree of any kind? Which ones will decide that an opportunity as great as college ultimately isn't worth it? Nearly 50%...

If you're skeptical, talk to anyone you know that has worked a seasonal job and ask them what they have learned and experienced. There will be some exceptions, but most will tell you that they had the time of their lives. They met like-minded individuals that they will be friends with for the rest of their lives. They've lived in places that most people save money simply to visit. They've saved money and visited foreign countries or foreign landscapes. They've have had their eyes and their minds opened to the endless opportunities in the world.

A high school biology teacher I know agrees: "The blueprint for the academia we go through is overrated. The real learning isn't in a schoolbook. School is very important; it can open so many doors. But until people learn to love life instead of things, then the good stuff just doesn't seem to come their way. The more I look, the more questions I ask about life, the more I put myself in interesting parts of the world, the better life gets. If we allow ourselves to be uncomfortable, it will allow us to see amazing things. It will inspire us to take advantage of our lives and not let our lives slip away unnoticed. All it takes is an initial moment of courage."

Think of the opportunities...

For more info, browse the coolworks website, or any of the following:
http://www.seasonworkers.com/gapyears/

http://www.gapyear.com/

http://www.thesca.org/

http://www.conservationcorps.org/

http://www.corpsnetwork.org/