Join Julia as she dives into the transformative gap year journey of Abby, an aerospace engineering student, and her mom, Elena, from Portland, Oregon. From bathing elephants in Thailand with Pacific Discovery to navigating East Africa’s rugged terrain with ARCC and road tripping and living independently in New York City. Abby’s year of exploration, growth, and independence shaped her into a confident, resourceful college student.
Elena shares her perspective as a supportive parent, offering tips on researching programs, addressing common concerns, and empowering independence. This episode is packed with insights on scaffolding gap year experiences, overcoming challenges, and embracing unexpected growth. Whether you’re considering a gap year or supporting someone who is, this conversation will inspire and guide you.
Transcript:
Thank you so much for being here. I’m really excited to have a mother daughter duo on the podcast. So Abby, I wanted to start with you. When did you decide to take a gap year and what were you hoping to get out of it?
What were some of your motivations?
Yeah, so I knew I wanted to take a gap year since my freshman year of high school, so this was not a decision I made because of COVID or anything like that. I knew that I was going to be doing a challenging curriculum in high school and then an even more challenging curriculum in college and I knew that I would want some time to focus on other parts of life outside of academics for a year in between.
I also know that I want to go to graduate school and so I’m in it for the long haul in terms of school and this felt like a really unique time to enjoy some time away from responsibilities, and learn about myself, gain confidence and independence. I definitely would have been fine if I went straight to college, but this experience
developed me and helped me thrive in college in ways that I never expected before I took my gap year. I also wanted to immerse myself in different cultures, explore things outside of the classroom and cultivate a curiosity outside of school. I wanted to take a break from being online and staring at a screen.
I wanted to learn in a hands on way. Explore new interests and gain a new perspective and learn to adapt and step outside my comfort zone.
You’re listing off, like, all the benefits you get from gap time, too. So I can’t wait to dig into that as we kind of progress in this conversation. But I also wanted to kind of ask your mom, Alina, you know, as a parent, what was your reaction when Abby first mentioned taking a gap year?
How did you feel about it? Was kind of travel and exploration this type of opportunity familiar to your family? Or did this feel different?
I was totally supportive and we sort of came to this idea together. And so, you know, I did a lot of the research on options and different organizations.
So I was absolutely on board from the beginning. That’s amazing.
Did you do any type of similar travel when you were young?
My family is very outdoorsy and has traveled a lot. So not specifically a gap year, but we’ve done quite a lot around the world. My mother’s career was leading outdoor trips and our whole family has been very outdoorsy from the beginning.
So there’s kind of like a culture of exploration baked into the family DNA.
And there were these couple of concerns, that many parents may have. For example, in a STEM field, some people said, well, you can’t take a year off from math. So we had to address some of those things, but that was, that was really not a major concern for me.
I definitely want to loop back to some of that vice sharing for, the brain trust that we have here. But I also wanted to share with the listeners, what Abby actually did on your gap year. So you spent 10 weeks in Thailand, through Pacific Discovery, as I understand it.
And then you also spent time with family in New York City. You also travel with ARC to East Africa, and then you did an epic road trip through the National Parks. So, that is a very cool gap year set of, activities, but, you know, for you, of all those different experiences, you know, is there any kind of top level surprising or unexpected takeaways that you, you know, you go in, you’re, you had all these amazing reasons and motivations for taking gap time, but what surprised you about having that set of experiences that were so different from each other?
That’s a great question. I think the way I sometimes describe it is that my first semester in Thailand taught me about myself and my second semester in East Africa taught me about my place in the world, to sort of give a high level answer. But then the thing that surprised me the most and that has benefited me maybe the most is that I basically spent a year being bad at things.
Like, we were doing things like rock climbing, which I had no idea what to do and I got a scuba diving certification and I can barely swim and I had to be the one who was asking questions and who was learning and school in high school was never easy for me, but I thrive in a traditional school setting.
So I have always been quote unquote good at school. And so, basically, having to be the humble one who is learning from everyone else for a year has benefited me. So much. I now can ask questions and I ask for help and I have this like new energy and purpose behind making mistakes and I like really value that in my learning in college and in my day to day life.
And that has just, opened up so many experiences that I don’t think I would have been willing to try necessarily if I hadn’t experienced it. Being bad at things but like in a really good way because it was fun and I was learning.
Yeah, and you know, you mentioned in our pre call that you are, you’re an engineering major, is that right?
What was the exact, what’s the specific, line within engineering?
I’m in aerospace engineering.
Right. So, as I understand it, all these kinds of STEM fields, especially something like that, hinges on collaborative thinking, teamwork, all those kinds of things. So, I imagine that what you just described is incredibly applicable, because once you’re doing team problem solving and also, Hypothesizing, testing things out, making mistakes, admitting when you maybe made a misstep, and then learning and growing from it.
I think that there can sometimes be a lot of rigidity in how we learn about the sciences, especially hard sciences. And so, I think that that’s a really cool observation of yourself, and I imagine that’s just so helpful now that you’re, a couple years into college
Absolutely, and I’m not the smartest person in the room in these classes and in these projects.
But now I approach that with Like, that’s a good thing. It means that I’m being challenged and that I can have these really fascinating discussions with my peers and my classmates and then I’m growing and I’m learning all the time from these people who I really admire and I’m not afraid to be wrong in that sense.
So everything that you’ve described is exactly what I’ve experienced.
Yeah, yeah. I think that that’s like, we can kind of shout it louder for the STEM kids in the back, you know, along the lines of what your mom said about, you know, it’s not that big a deal. You know, there’s things that you can do to compensate for the.
year that you might miss in hard science learning if you take a gap year, but what you gain, I think, is so much more exponentially helpful as far as when you’re looking at the long view of the, you know, college education and then the career afterwards. Lena, do you have anything to add to that just from, again, from your perspective, as a parent?
Yes, and specifically about math. So she was in, the highest level IB calculus, took the IB calc exam, and also took the AP calc exam. And had dual credits. So she actually went into school with a huge number of credits, but specifically in math, she had credits that could have gotten her out of that first semester of math in college.
And she decided to not take those credits and to take the class in college instead. And that was a really, really smart choice because she had had online learning during COVID, which is more difficult for a lot of students. She had then had the year off from math. And then also, high level math at a high level institution is just a whole different ballgame even than IB Math or AP Calc.
So to retake that class was a really smart choice for her to do.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I also have had students, take even just like a kind of refresher course over the summer before they start freshman year, as well as just, kind of getting that part of your brain activated again, which can be also a nice way of doing it if you are in a different kind of academic situation.
Absolutely. A lot of parents feel like they, have to have their student just get as many credits as possible and test out of as many things as possible. And that’s not always a good choice. Even if the student would do fine, you don’t really want to do fine. And this was a class where she didn’t need to just check the box for taking calculus.
She needs to really, really have a strong foundation of calculus for her career. And likewise, she’s not a history major, so she took that AP history credit and Just move forward.
Yep. That’s, that’s well done. Exactly. To look back again at some of like these amazing activities and programs and places that you were able to explore in your gap time, what were some of the favorite spots, you know, of the places you visited or just even days or moments of your gap time?
What now, a few years later, kind of still sticks out in your memory as really special from that year? This might be the hardest question I ask you.
Yeah, this is such a hard question because every day was the best day. I could have pulled any story from any of these days. So I think one of my favorite stories is the first time that I ever went scuba diving because the way the training works is you get your certification in the pool they have this practice in and then you actually get to, go out into the ocean.
And the first day I ended up, I mean, it’s just beautiful. First of all, it’s just spectacular. And you’re in this world that’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. And then I got in the middle of this swarm of these silver colored fish, and they were just moving all around me, and it was this incredible array of colors.
And then, from the, depths of the ocean, these barracuda came and, swam at the group of fish that was around me, and so the fish, split around me, and I just saw this beautiful, rainbow of color moving past me, and it was really spectacular. And then another story from Thailand is we spent a week at an elephant rescue facility and we got to bathe the elephants and the way that they did that at this facility is the elephants get in a big pool, and then we were kind of sitting by the side of the pool going, How are we going to bathe them if they’re swimming?
And then the guides were like, All right, get in. And so we got to get in and swim with these elephants and then bathe them that way. And that was an incredible experience. Those are really magnificent animals and that was just a really magical experience.
Yeah, I love hearing these anecdotes because I think that again, it’s, a time of life where whatever you decide to do, there’s going to be these kind of glimmers, you know, that end up being.
the things that you daydream about, you know, in class or something like that and you want to be somewhere else, you’re going to be thinking about bathing that elephant.
Yeah, exactly. My friends and I, from my gap year, call them snow globe moments that we wish we could just capture and keep in a snow globe.
I love that image. That’s perfect. So you had these, Two separate types of opportunities that you did. You did structured experiences, which were Pacific Discovery and ARC. And those are experiences where you’re with a cohort, you have leaders, the logistics are more managed than other types of gap year experiences.
So those are, amazing because oftentimes you get to do things that would just be extremely hard to plan on your own. And plus you get that amazing friendship group that you get to bond with. But then you also did these more independent things, like when you stayed in New York and when you we’re road tripping and things like that.
So, how did that independence piece play in? How did you feel? How did you build that confidence towards those more independent pieces? How did you use your resources that you gained on maybe more of the structured experiences to leverage in those more independent experiences?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think the way that I ended up setting up the year was really effective. One thing that was important to me was when all my friends were leaving for college in September, I also wanted to be leaving to go do something, more structured. And so I’m really happy that I picked a program for the fall specifically.
And the program in the fall was, very structured, but we were like staying in hotels and mostly eating out and things like that. And then staying in New York, it was nice because I was with my family in the evenings, but I was out on my own. During the day, just exploring, but it was a city where I spoke the language and I sort of knew how to get around, but I had to learn how to use the subway and stuff.
I do joke that once you use public transport in Bangkok, where we ended our Thailand program, you can use it anywhere in the world. And so New York felt like nothing after that. And then my program in the spring was structured but much rougher in terms of travel. We traveled by overland truck and basically camped and cooked for ourselves the whole time, which was very different than the way the Thailand program was set up.
And that set me up well to then go on my gap year road trip where I wasn’t with family and was just totally independent, basically, for those two months. And I was with other people, but I was in charge of the food and the solar equipment on the truck and the directions and the reservations and the hiking plans and all that.
But I felt super comfortable in my own skin by then, and I was able to use the skills that I had gained, like, budgeting and cooking skills and organizational skills to then basically almost demonstrate them on this two month road trip. And that was really satisfying for me because it sort of showed to myself what I had learned throughout the year also in a cumulative way there at the end.
Yeah, I describe that with my students as kind of scaffolding your year. You know, you want to take on the right amount of challenge as the year progresses and I think that that’s one of the reasons why gap year students grow so much and develop so much independence and self confidence is because you’re in the course of, you know, nine to 12 months, you’re taking on all these different levels of, challenge.
It’s so satisfying to see how fast that can happen. What was seemingly very intimidating in the fall would no longer seem that way when you did it, the following June or whatever.
Absolutely. Even just thinking about planning my road trip in the fall felt. Like, an insane task.
And then I got back from that Thailand program and I was like, Oh, I can do this. Like, I can plan a trip. This is very doable. And then by the time I actually did it, I was nervous at the beginning, but then I just fell into this groove that I had developed from traveling for this whole year that would have been really challenging if I had just left for a road trip in September, I think.
I really want to hear about how you thought about your time in New York, because I think a lot of students want to maybe go someplace where they have family, they can stay for free, maybe it’s interesting, or at least not their childhood bedroom, but if they’re not doing a program or activity or course or working, they really get anxious about how to fill that time, and I think that part of your gap year is learning how to be comfortable with something that’s unstructured, but how did you go about planning that time in New York?
Did you make a list? Did you have a spreadsheet? Did you have something to anchor yourself to your days, or how did you think about that?
That’s a great question, and that definitely is something that I could see one struggle with if you don’t do some advanced planning. My mom helped me out a lot with this, so she, is a genius when it comes to coming up with lists of things to do in cities.
She helped me. Brainstorm ideas, and the great thing about going to a city like New York is you could fill every day for a year and not go through everything there is to do in that city. And so I used resources like my mom and then also my family there gave me some great advice about things to do.
And the way I structured it was My aunt and uncle both work, but they had a little toddler at the time, and so I would try to basically be gone doing something during the day when all three of them were out doing their own things, and then when everybody came back in the evening, I tried to be home, and I would hang out with their toddler while they made dinner or worked a little more, and then on weekends, we would do things together,
I should go there next week and then sort of adapt my plan. But I made sure that I went out and did something every day. That was really important. I think if I had just sat in their apartment, that would have been a very different experience. A couple of weeks there. And then my mom also came to stay with me, and the family in New York for a week, which was super fun.
So we went around together for a part of that time.
And did you mostly, were you seeing, were you going to museums or exhibitions or what were specifically some things that you were enjoying about exploring in New York? Like you said, you could do endless number of things and you would never run out of things.
I loved Doing stuff like I walked down to and then took the boat to see this Statue of Liberty and I love Going to museums. So I went to a bunch of museums. I went to some shows I saw the Lion King on Broadway, which was super fun and I went to art museums I did a lot of walking because I love just exploring a city in that way, but I think museums and shows were my, were my big ones.
So fun. I grew up outside New York, so I have like a special place in my heart for just wandering around New York without much plan at all. So that resonates.
Absolutely,
a hundred
percent. But even that, if you think about a young adult.
going to New York and wandering around by themselves all day. That seemed a lot less scary after she had been away in Thailand for three months. So again, I don’t think that should have been the first thing that she did.
Yeah. And you know, Elena, what advice do you have for parents who are listening, who want to understand how you were able to balance that?
Offering of help and using your own skill set to help Abby while also allowing her to make choices and cultivate independence and, tackle some of those opportunities for growth.
Yeah, I definitely think going from more structure to less structure is really important. We’ve talked about how even the Africa trip, if that had been first, because it was much more difficult physically and mentally and much grittier, that would have been really tough if that was the first trip.
So it’s really good that it wound up in the order that it did. And in terms of providing resources, I just did a lot of the legwork of initial research, but not the decisions. The decisions were hers. I just did a lot of the research, reading reviews, googling things, looking at different itineraries, figuring out what would work.
So there was a smaller range of choices than just googling. What do I do on my gap year?
That can be the biggest stumbling block for I think a lot of people who would otherwise be interested in taking a gap year is the kind of where to begin. Did you have resources, Elena, that you were feeling really comfortable with or that you really appreciated in that initial research?
I did use the Gap Year Association and we went to a gap year fair. And other than that, it was just, just reading online, reading blogs, reading about these different organizations. We also pretty quickly zeroed in on a number of things that Abby did not want to do. So she did not want to do a program where it was all in one place.
Like some things are, oh, do a homestay for nine months in one country. Or live in one city and do an internship. That was off the table. Also, anything that was intense language study. There are some programs which are, you know, you do four hours of language class in the morning and then you explore in the afternoon.
She did not want to do that. Nothing that was sort of classroom based was of interest to her. So that eliminated a lot of choices right off the bat, which was really helpful.
And that’s a good thing to kind of just note, you know, as far as a tactic that you can take is, you know, a brainstorming exercise that a student can do alone or even better if a parent or caregiver can be a part of it, but that, you know, the what, what do you want to do versus the what don’t you want to do?
And if you have a little bit in each of those categories, that gives you more of a jumping off point because it can get a little much when you start just blindly googling and hoping that you throw a dart at something that’s going to work.
Yes, exactly. So I just did a lot of that initial stuff, and I would come to her and say, Oh, you know, I’ve read about these four or five things this week, and this, this one focuses on this, and this one focuses on that.
And she would say, Oh, that doesn’t sound interesting at all. Or, Oh, this one does sound interesting. And then we just started to put these pieces together.
That’s
great.
And, Elena, was there a moment when you saw Abby handle a challenge or seek out an opportunity that made you think, Wow, this is what I was hoping for.
This is what the gap year is all about. Kind of that proud parent moment.
There was. So my most extraordinary piece of that was that when she set off for her independent road trip, she left in early spring and just went off, drove away out of the driveway. And then our family, the mom, dad and sister, flew to meet her and then spent the last.
Two weeks of her road trip with her. So we had a long period of not seeing her and then got to see her again. And my goodness, I mean, she had been mature before, but there was just this new found confidence about her. She just knew how to take care of business. If something was broken, she just figured out a way to fix it.
She had her whole system for the camp kitchen and what went where. And it was just beautiful to watch. She just managed everything. And on that road trip, she had to deal with issues. For example, she was traveling with a companion for a week or so, who was type 1 diabetic, and ran out of insulin.
And they had to figure out how to get insulin in the middle of nowhere. And, you know, they could have some advice by phone, but we couldn’t really do much other than try to give them some advice. And there were times when she was completely out of touch and we didn’t know where she was because she was, she didn’t have cell service.
So I couldn’t be doing, tracking her or anything like that. And so to have that couple of months and then to see her again with just this beautiful confidence about her was really amazing.
Yeah. And to be able to take that with you, day one of college is so amazing. Abby, for you, how do you feel like your gap year helped shape you and how, I mean, you’ve said a couple of times now in our own correspondence that you felt like a gap year was a really good decision and it’s helped set you up really well for college, but can you articulate that a little bit more and how you felt, like how you think Abby 2.
0, you know, was a better college student as a result of this gap time? Absolutely.
Yeah, I always say that I think taking a gap year was the best decision I ever made, both for me personally and then also professionally and academically in college. I think I’m, More disciplined and more competent at handling small day to day challenges, even something as small as my freshman year, I became known as like the girl who takes care of spiders on our dorm floor.
Everyone else would was like, Oh, my God, there’s a spider in my room and they would text in the. floor group chat, and I’d be like, be right there, and I would go and like, put the spider in a cup and take it outside, and just small day to day things like that. And then I’m also not afraid to do things by myself, which was a huge change and a huge benefit in college.
Even something like, I joined the swing dancing club my freshman year, and I didn’t know how to dance and didn’t know anyone in the club, and I just went to this first meeting and was like, this sounds fun, I’m gonna go try it, and none of my friends wanted to go with me. So I went. I’m not afraid to try new things or get involved in things really early, which, if you get involved early, then your involvement can deepen over time.
And I’ve seen that I can be much more involved than, even in the same organization, than maybe some peers who didn’t get involved as early. And that’s opened doors later on professionally. I also now know that I can learn from everyone I meet. I. really believe that college is a place to be physically safe, but a place to have your intellectual beliefs challenged.
I really embraced that process after my gap year, and I think that made me a much better student. And it also just made me comfortable talking to anyone and having conversation in any setting, which helps even at things like career fairs. Like I have the two programs that I did at the top of my resume, and they’re an immediate conversation starter at any career or recruiting event.
Suddenly I’m like the girl who took a gap year rather than the 70th aerospace engineer they’ve talked to in the last 40 minutes. I really hit the
nail on the head on that one I feel like that is one of the unsung benefits of gap time is that people want to hear about it They see it and they’re like wait tell me about You, like, were tranquilizing rhinoceroses in East Africa?
What? So, yeah,
exactly. And then finally, one thing that was, a specific growth area for me was, I specifically in East Africa saw how women and girls are treated in some other countries, and I’m now a woman entering a male dominated field, and I honestly mostly just feel gratitude for my opportunities here, and it’s made me really unafraid to kind of make the most of the opportunities that I have, basically just because of the place that I was born.
And so I think that that gratitude and respect for the opportunities that I have. here, even as a woman in a male dominated field, has, propelled me to leadership roles and to opportunities with just a new perspective.
Yeah, that’s, I mean, I was going to ask you more about that kind of connection between your gap year and your career path, but how sure were you about your trajectory before you took your gap year and was there any experiences that you did have on it that helped clarify things or just help you feel a little bit more prepared in that way as far as like what’s out there to do with your hands and with your brain once you’re actually in your career?
Yeah, so for a lot of people that, gap years could maybe change their career trajectory. But for me, I was like, since I was a little kid, I was like, I am going to be an aerospace engineer. I was the kid who wanted to go to NASA when my family went to Texas and waited all day to see mission control.
And then had my nose pushed up against the glass looking at the flight controllers in the room. So my specific broad interests didn’t change, but, I’ve recently become really interested in basically human factors and that side of aerospace, anything that has to do with human spaceflight.
And I do think that a little bit of that comes from my gap year, I just sort of became very interested in the way people interact psychologically and so translating that into my career path.
And so I’m currently like noodling on the idea of becoming a professor, and I think that is definitely an impact from my gap year. So not necessarily my main trajectory, but just additional interests and kind of side passions that can help weave a really meaningful career for me.
As she was leaving on her gap year, we as her parents very explicitly gave her permission to change her mind.
And we said, yes, we know that you have been accepted to this school in their College of Engineering in this major and that that is what is the intention for you to do. But if you discover something on this year that changes your path, that is okay. So we were very direct about giving her permission to not just be on that path and think that, you know, to please us she had to stay on it even if she changed her mind.
Yeah, that freedom is really important and I think that, like you said, it’s okay to take a gap year. I think there’s loads and loads of students who take a gap year because they don’t really know why they want to use their college experience or in what way they’re going to benefit from it.
But I think that it’s just a matter of how you’re going to develop rather than if it’s appropriate or not for you to take a gap year based on your supposed, you know, ambitions and things like that,
oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I don’t think that there’s, I can’t think of anything that should keep you from doing a gap year even if you, like, know what you, want to do.
I think it only makes you grow, only makes you thrive even more in college, even if it’s in the major that you expected to go into. So.
So, you know, the way that we all connected was that Elena is a gap year advocate. You’re both are gap year advocates now as a result of this amazing experience.
I think that’s really cool that you all have teamed up and have given presentations and shared resources. And I’m curious how that all Came about Elena. Do you want to kick us off with just kind of how did you all decide to not just? You know, call it a day on having a great gap experience, but start to share resources and try to create more knowledge around this.
So Abby has stayed in touch with a number of her teachers at her high school where her younger sister also attends and her first time back at home after her gap year and after she’d been in school, we sort of got this idea to talk to some of the junior classes about her gap year.
So she contacted one of her beloved teachers, and they set up a time for Abby to come in and talk. And it was just a really great experience for her to come in and share with these students, with her fresh off this experience.
Yeah. And Abby, have you done anything since to kind of help share this information or maybe encourage other people to take gap time?
Yeah, I’ve continued to go back and give presentations, and I think every year, even that I, get further from when I took my gap year, I think I just have more perspective on why it’s been useful. So, like, after I was done with my freshman year, I came back and talked to school again, and now I could both talk about what I gained from my gap year, but then also talk about how it impacted me in college and how I saw those benefits.
So I’ve continued to do that, my mom has done more of this than I have, but, I’ve also just been a resource for students who are considering doing the programs that I’m interested in. So, when you finish a GAP program, sometimes they ask like, oh, if a student has questions about the student experience, can we direct them to you?
So I, of course, said yes. And so I’ve been contacted by a couple of students to talk specifically about. the programs that I did. But other than that, just continuing to share with the juniors at school, I end up coming home around the time that they’re doing all of their post secondary exploration. So there’s people from colleges coming in and from the trades.
And so I just like to come in as basically another example of what you can do after high school.
100%. And if anyone out there who’s an alum is listening and wants to do something similar, the Gap Year Association has a bunch of resources for alums who want to go back to their high school. They have handouts and like a powerpoint that people can use and stuff like that.
So you can reach out to the podcast if you want to get connected with that. But that is, I think, a really great kind of like taking responsibility for for sharing that information because I think that that’s one of the biggest factors as to why we’re not seeing most students taking a gap year is a lack of knowledge and a lack of people who are trailblazing this this opportunity and kind of showing how how it can be so impactful.
So it’s really cool that you’re you’re you’re doing that work in real time.
I find that much of the dialogue around gap years is things like, well, a lot of people aren’t quite ready for college, they’re not mature enough, they don’t know what they want to do, maybe they’re floundering, they need more direction, find themselves, and that is not who Abby was at all.
And so I also want to sort of change that narrative for high achieving students and students who do know exactly what they want to do, that this can also be a very deliberate part of the plan.
Yeah. And Alina, what would you say to a parent who’s hesitant about supporting? A kid’s decision to take a gap year, especially if it’s coming from the student, like, I want to take a gap year, and the parent is the one who’s concerned.
So I think there is truly no downside, and that the concerns that people have are far outweighed by all of the incredible benefits. So I just really think that there’s, there’s no downside to doing this. There may be, a scenario here or two where a student has a very specific situation where it doesn’t work.
Maybe they’re a highly recruited athlete or something like that. And, that doesn’t fit with playing a high level sport in college. But for the overwhelming majority of students, Stripes everything from, don’t know what they want to do to a very, very clear direction. I think this absolutely fits in.
Yeah. And likewise, Abby, one of the things that I hear a lot from students is there. There’s anxiety around going off the track, you know, and that’s not just for the high achievers, but I think that’s for people who make an assumption and who will live in communities where there’s a presumption that you should know exactly what you want after high school or that, you know, if you don’t go straight to college, something is good.
Something’s amiss. Or they just feel, like it’s just not done, right? There’s just some of these misconceptions. What do you say to students when you hear that? Or what would you say to a student who was like, I don’t think that I should do a gap year. A gap year is great for you, but not for me.
Yeah, so some of the concerns that I hear are similar to what you just said, like, oh, when I get to college, like, maybe I won’t make friends because I’m a year older, or like, people are going to think it’s weird. Most of the time for me, when I meet people and tell them that I went on a gap year, they’re like, oh, dang, I wish I had done that.
Like, it’s never like, oh, you didn’t know what you wanted to do. It’s all like, Oh, that’s awesome. Like, what the heck? That’s so cool. I wish I had done that or tell me more about this experience you had or give me recommendations about where I can travel in this country that you’ve been to.
And so it’s all like incredibly positive. And then in terms of like transitioning to college afterwards, it really had. No negative impacts. I mean, I just arrived and did the orientation program like any other freshman and made friends and built this great community and I have friends who are graduate students.
I have friends who are years younger or older than me. And so really doesn’t have the impact that I think is the negative impact that I think is imagined when high schoolers are thinking about taking a year to do something different or off the beaten path. And I really think that everyone has been incredibly supportive in my life, and if people don’t know you before you take a gap year, their response is always, oh my gosh, that’s amazing.
Yeah, I mean, I would say I’m 15 plus years out from my own gap time, and I still hear that, or when people find out that I’m a gap year counselor, they’re like, oh, I wish I had taken a gap year, or I did take a gap year and here’s what I did. It’s very rare that I ever get someone who pooh poohs it or thinks that that’s a silly idea.
I think that a lot of people are really open to it.
I’ve genuinely never had anyone be negative about it. Ever.
That’s great. Well, I really want to thank you both for making the time to be here and share this amazing wisdom with listeners because I think that this is going to be very inspirational and comforting to people who are planning a gap year, thinking about a gap year.
Or people who are in the camp of the lucky few who’ve done a gap year. So thank you so much for being here.
Thank you. It was lovely. Thank you so much for having us.