Sarah is a student who just graduated from high school. Let’s see what her plan before collage is.
Lisa: Sarah, when are you going to start university?
Sarah: Probably next year. I’m taking a gap year and hopefully I will be doing some voluntary work in Kenya.
Lisa: Fantastic. I hope it goes well.
We come across a popular phrase — gap year in Sarah and her classmate, Lisa’s conversation. So what does it mean? Gap year usually refers to one year taken off by a student between leaving school and taking up a place at a university. More often, options[i]) open to students in the gap year include volunteering[ii]) at home and abroad, becoming a member of an expedition to some far off country, joining a work experience program, applying for paid work all over the world, and learning a new skill on a training course. This term is pretty common in some parts of the world, particularly in the west, where it's looked upon by many as something of a rite[iii]) of passage.
For nearly thirty years, Harvard University has been recommending that students consider taking a year off between high school and university, even proposing[iv]) it in their letter of admission. In an article entitled Time Out or Burn Out for the Next Generation, Harvard College Dean of Admissions, William Fitzsimmons and his colleagues argue strongly for the benefits of taking a break. The authors note that it is "a time to step back and reflect[v]), to gain perspective on personal values and goals, or to gain needed life experience in a setting separate from and independent of one's accustomed pressures and expectations."
Recently, more and more western high school students are opting to take some time out for themselves before they enter university, to do some exploring, gain some life experience and to find out where their interests and aptitudes[vi]) really lie. Many students cherish gap year experience as one of most valuable in their lives, like Elizabeth Daniel, who gave up the offer from Harvard University for a gap year experience. She wrote the article below to share her experience, which we may not come through now but look forward to some time in the future.
Putting off College for Real Life
My life up to that point had been focused intently on my success in school and the world of ideas. I can remember working on projects and studying for tests. I can remember countless happy hours in my English teacher's room or in my home working with Liquid Paper or writing my own poetry. I remember nights lying awake, my mind racing with pictures and ideas ranging from physics to political theory to good literature. I remember walking across the stage at graduation, having gotten my acceptance to Harvard, and feeling on top of the world.
I also remember the moment that summer when I realized that I needed to put the world of ideas on hold and pursue the call I felt to serve. At eighteen my head was full of ideas, but I lacked a foundation of reality to put under them. I felt the urgency[vii]) to act. This decision defied[viii]) all of my college professor father's expectations, shocked my mother, and sent an earthquake through my relationship to almost everyone I knew. Nevertheless, I joined Americorps, moved to Austin, Texas and began working with sixth through eighth graders labeled "at-risk."
Just before Christmas break, I was standing in a white-tile, darkened hallway in the Alternative Learning Center in Austin, a place for troubled students. I was waiting for one of my students who had been sent there and felt like I had let her down by not being a good enough mentor[ix]) to keep her out of trouble.
When the student rounded the corner into the dismal[x]) hallway where I stood, her eyes lifted to mine, and I saw a look of delighted surprise, a recognition that someone had come to see her specifically. It was a Christmas gift I never expected: a sense of contribution, of well being, of success. I realized my responsibility was not to "save" this child, but to be there for her. It did not matter whether I reformed her; all that mattered was that I had been there. She was not alone.
My experiences of the past eight months taught me the meaning of sympathy[xi]), the importance of attempting to understand what people are dealing with before evaluating their worth, the significance of perseverance[xii]), and the awesome power of hope. I know now the responsibility of what I have been given. I am an eighteen-year-old who knows herself and knows what she wants. I am going to college because I want to go, not because I am supposed to go