Does A Gap Year Actually Make A Difference in Life.

New trends have been making their way in our high schools for the last number of years now. Whether it is “ Dabbing” or taking “duck face” selfies, trends are becoming a big part in the daily life in the schools. A trend that has been going on so long now, it could become a more recurring option for high school graduates. Gap years have been happening more frequent now than ever before. A “ Gap year” is when a high school graduate decides to take a year off before going back to secondary education. A common option is working, so they can save up money to pay for the secondary education. An Alternative option is to travel, world traveling has been a choice for many students in the past years. A Gap year has been controversial for a number of years, leaving many parents and teenagers in odds about what is best for the student’s life.

A Gap year has many benefits. In fact, they have so many benefits, that even some University and College programs require you to take a year off. Holland College Police Science Program and the Sheriff and Public Safety officer are two programs that requires you to be 19 before entering the program. This means anyone that enters the program must take a year off, since most graduates are 18 when the graduate. So depending on what kind of secondary education you want, you may reap the benefits of a gap year and it was not even your choice to do so. Traveling is an option when doing a gap year. The option of traveling during your gap year is a popular one of students. One benefit of a gap year is that you can end up finding your hidden passion during your gap year. When you are world traveling, you encounter an abundance of experiences. Having these experiences , can change your view on what you want to do with your life. By the end of grade twelve, you are counting the days till you walk across the stage and get your diploma. One advantage of undergoing a year off of school is that you can distress from the twelve years of torture that you endured during school. The last benefit from taking a year off of school is that you are able to work when you are taking the year off. If you have a plan of the program you want to take, you can take a year off and work. This gives you the ability to save money when you are working. Having a job can easily can pay off the second year education and can give you a start on paying off the debt of school. Taking a gap year is a great way to prepare for the rest of your life. Having a year off can change the way that you see how you live the rest of your life. Taking a gap year gives the tools to live the rest of your life.

Taking a gap year has many disadvantages to it as well. One of the cons of taking a year off is that if you decide to travel it can be very expensive. Giving the pros of traveling during the year are great but there are cons as well. Traveling is very expensive to do, if you travel you can get in debt that will be hard to get out of. Traveling around the world is very expensive. Another con of taking a gap year is that you would be taking a break from being in a school setting. By the end of grade twelve you are in a routine of studying and learning, taking a year off can ruin you because you fall out of the pattern of the way you were when you were in high school. This can make you have to work a lot harder when you decide to go to secondary education, and it can be an inconvenience for many because when you have to work harder to get back into the patterns of studying this can affect the other things you have to do to succeed in university and college. One other problem that may arise when taking a year off before is that you will be behind. After high school you have only one dream you have is to create a life for yourself. When you take a gap year you become behind, most times people go to the same university or college as their friends. When your friends are in secondary education it is hard to take a year off and be behind your friends. This can cause a lot of stress because of the want to get into the job field, and seeing all your classmates taking the first step towards their future can be really stressful for the person taking a gap year. A gap year has a great amount of cons towards it. It is hard to take a year off before secondary education, which doesn’t appeal to everyone

The battle between parents and their kids has been going on about the topic of a gap year since the concept started. Taking a year off of schooling has a good amount of benefits towards it, for example it gives you a chance to find what you want to be before you spend money on furthering your education. A gap year is not always the best option for students going into university or college. One problem is if you take a year off it can be very hard to want to go back. It also can be troubling to get back into the routine of studying and having school work. There is no right or wrong answer about a gap year, every person is different and a gap year can affect people different in every situation. Gap years have pros and cons but one thing that is for sure is that this trend is sure to become a new practice that graduates do before moving on with their life.