“All my bags are packed, and I’m ready to go.”
The song comes on the radio, how ironic. The last year of high school and you’re not ready, let alone sure of where to go. University? A job? Or something else? The choices are endless. There aren’t many times in life when you can justify sitting still for 15 hours or sharing the stale, soggy bathroom with hundreds of strangers, but when on the ‘gap year’, the term comfort becomes open to discussion, as you experience moments far surpassing those had in school. Sarah Asher investigates what it means to take a gap year, in the time after high school when new opportunities arise.
You are about finish high school and big decisions loom over you like caustic cumulus clouds; decisions that could set your path for the rest of your life. Are you going to study? What university could you go too? You have the choice to do anything and your future is finally in your hands. What do you do? Now could be the best time to do something out of the ordinary. Dare I say it, bold? The Gap Year; a year in which participants take a break from the punishing routine of education and go on an adventure that takes them out of their comfort zone. A time in which you can do the outrageous, the fulfilling, or the educational parts of life you couldn’t get sitting in the dreary environment of the lecture theatre, the gap year gives you the chance to do these things and more. The gap year is ultimately the chance to seize your freedom or independence, as you enter the world of the adult.
Even when the world was thought to be flat, man has had a desire to see beyond their own backyard. Explorers, Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus; Ancient Heroes, Odysseus and Jason; and the literary characters, Gulliver and Phileas Fogg, all took their own version of the gap year. These people and characters have since become synonymous with some of the greatest adventures in the history of our world, but they couldn’t have gotten there without taking the first step to leave their own countries behind.
When Marco Polo left his native Venice for then unknown Asia in 1271, he did not share the same comforts available to travelers today, arriving in 1276 on a boat of less than economy standard comfort and didn’t return to his homeland until 24 years later. Marco Polo may or may not have known how long his gap year would be, but he went anyway and also wrote a book to share his experiences with other people. This effectively introduced the Europeans to the Asian continent and inspired other people to investigate further than their own culture – so you can thank a gap year for your sweet and sour pork!
Famous explorer Christopher Columbus is said to have carried around a copy of Marco Polo’s book when he set out for his journey abroad. He used the adventures of Marco Polo to influence his own travels and aspired to garner the equivalent experiences. Year 13 Freya Elkink wishes to do the same. “I love travel and I think it would be good fun to get out of my ordinary routine for a while.” Freya is just one of the 68% of students interviewed in Year 13 who are considering taking a gap year as their maiden voyage as adulthood.
When asked what was the biggest factor for leaving, most of the sample Year 13 answered that the ‘lack of exciting options’ offered in New Zealand made them want to get out and try new things. Taran Molloy, classmate to Freya and fellow Year 13, expressed these sentiments when asked about his future after high school. “I’m sick of New Zealand, nothing ever happens here.” This trend of boredom within the Year 13 age group at Wellington High School is particularly evident, but it is one thing to talk about it and another to actually take the leap of faith into the unknown.
To break out of the warm bubble of routine and family is going to be difficult for those intending to participate in the gap year, which is why extensive planning can go a long way. The first thing to consider, is not what Smiths or Nirvana t-shirts you should take, but who you’re travelling with. Whether the solo journey of self-discovery or the navigation of Europe with three friends stuffed into the back of a small car appeals to you, knowing the type of people you travel with will help in the long-run. Finding out that your friend is not a Gryffindor, but is actually a Slytherin, while stuck in transit or changing a tyre, is not a great way to enjoy your time abroad. Therefore, choosing your mates or travel companions wisely is a must on a long list of dos.
Secondly, although the paper for money grows on trees, saving and scrimping has to start early regardless of how much you wish to buy Bjork’s new album ‘Vulnicura.’ Year 13 Kasey Leary, who is planning a gap year to Europe in 2016, says that whenever she goes to buy things, she “thinks about how everything she buys, could have been a slice of pizza in Italy or the price of a ticket to somewhere else.” Kasey encourages others to do the same if considering a gap year, “I have never traveled and I think all the effort I put in now gets me that one bit closer. I can settle down and buy stuff I don’t need after I travel.”
The gap year is going to be expensive and something that not necessarily everyone can afford or want to afford, but it is just one option to consider after finishing high school. Those who are really invested in the idea will be able to make it work. There also isn’t anything or anyone to say you can’t even take your gap year a little bit later when you have the financial foundation to facilitate flying; it’s your time to do what you want.
The third most important thing to remember when taking a gap year, is to accept that sometimes getting ‘lost’ is a good thing. If you think back to some of your fondest memories, are they generally things that happened spontaneously, or things that were part of an ordered plan? In this way, a gap year should be a time where you accept doing things differently than normal and embrace the fact that, when things do go awry, you’re growing up. Whether it is getting lost in Madrid, changing a tyre with a Slytherin or mistaking the word ‘mother’ for ‘donkey’, coping with the unexpected will always be the things you remember the most.
So, in the spirit of excitement and the coming conclusion of high school, consider the gap year as the way to finally start growing up and learning beyond the classroom. In the words of John Denver, in all his singer-songwriter wisdom, “All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go… cause I’m leaving on a Jet plane and I don’t know when I’ll be back again.”
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