Taking a gap year is a crucial decision to make at the end of high school. It depends on a student mentality and capability of the student to cope up with the consequences of it. A gap year has its own pros and cons. But the positive side of taking a gap year seems to be a bright one in comparison to the other side.
A gap year can cater many advantages to students. I will serve as a break from the traditional education. It can give a sense of relief after a lot of hard work in high school under the pressure to perform well in academics. Many students who enter directly to the college regret for the course they choose. Taking a gap can give them more time to learn more about the course which they want to opt for. It can give them time to decide if the course is as appealing as they heard it to be. It can also boost student’s confidence, fill a new vigor in them and add to his focus and interest towards the course.
Another big advantage of taking a year gap is that the student can enhance his skills and talents. He can even explore their hidden passions and drive their careers towards that. As there will be no pressure of studies on his head, there will be an ample time with the student to learn and master what he really loves to do. A gap year can teach a student to grow mature too. He will surely learn how to manage himself and the things around him as well. As he will be spending more time away from the classroom, he will learn to take social responsibilities. He will come across different people and will learn many things from experiences which a classroom can never teach.
Besides this a gap year has advantages like a student can experience different work culture, spend more time in planning for the things which are right for him, developing new skills, have opportunities to travel around new places and add up some spice to his boring student life.
Coming to the negative side, it has different impacts on a student’s academic and personal life as well. The biggest point to take into consideration is that you will be a year behind than your mates at the end. It can even prove to be a risky task. It might happen that things don’t go as you expect them to go and you end up at the same place even after investing a year. It will be sheer wastage of time. There are possibilities that you may get indulged into some addictive routines. As you will be having a plenty of time to spend, you might go spending it on excessively playing snooker, clubbing etc., which can even prove to be a waste of money.
So what I feel is that you should first learn about yourself in the details. Check your confidence. Make sure that you can use that gap year for developing yourself. If you think that you won’t be able to utilize that time to its fullest to make it productive, don’t opt for it. Or else, what you will have at the end will be just regrets.
