Gap Year

The Gap Year. In the States, it’s a fancy term borrowed from the Europeans for those who want to “find themselves” before they go to college. Parents fear the words. If Johnny doesn’t go to college now, he’ll never make it. He might find something more appealing during that year, like eating frozen burritos and playing World of Warcraft. Students who had spent the last four years of their life building their resumes in the SGA and National Honors Society would never risk a gap year amidst the competitive atmosphere of college admissions. Now, however, with the help of a few of the top schools, such as Princeton, it is becoming an attractive option for college matriculates, even for those voted Most Likely to Succeed in high school.

There is a trend in the volunteers I’ve met here in Ghana. When I first arrived mid-May, I was one of the few Americans; most of the others were European gap year students. As finals were ending in the States, we began to receive the summer American influx, all somewhere in the middle of their college education. Now, as classes loom nearer, the Americans start to trickle away and the 08-09 gap yearers start to replace them.

It reflects the rush of American lives. If we took a whole year off, that would put us a whole year behind our peers, another whole year away from making the big money. In order to keep up, we opt for a gap summer, rather than a gap year.

It’s all too common for high school graduates to be herded on to college whether they know what they are interested in studying or not. It’s what you are supposed to do, or so says some middle-class cultural entity. Just as college is not for everyone, everyone may not be ready for college at the same time. Those who aren’t ready still likely proceed with their peers but end up spending more time exploring the strip than they do their professional interests.

So many people enter college with no direction in their lives. Upperclassmen wear their number of majors like a crown of glory. “I’ve changed majors eight times!” The academic advisors coax this into normalcy as they tell tales of these sixth year royals to the incoming freshmen. If you haven’t figured out why you are here after two or three years, maybe university isn’t the place it’s going to happen.


So if you’re starting to glue the jewels on your crown of eight majors worth of bragging rights, put the glue gun away. Stop doing what you’re “supposed” to be doing, and let yourself wander. Take a year and broaden the field of your search. Work, travel, just learn about life and yourself. Stop wasting your money, (or better yet, the governments) and do something productive. Experience life.