I found this article about the rise in the American practice of the “gap year”… a year between high school and college that young people take to gain life experience away from school. I started to scroll through the comments but they could be summarized as either “gosh, I wish I had a gap year! It helps you focus!” or “That’s a wussy idea for namby-pamby elitists who waste their entire college time on drinking and partying!”
Personally, I’ve come to think that taking a year… maybe even a couple… between high school and college might not be a bad idea in the abstract. My own personal experience of college was that it was an extension of high school, only with more fun living conditions (no parents!) and the ability to choose your classes (somewhat). I had very little sense of college as a privilege, as a time in my life that was unique and worth being appreciated for its uniqueness. Instead, with the callow self-centeredness of youth, I spent a large part of my time feeling victimized and oppressed because anyone (professors, parents, etc.) expected anything of me.
It only took me a few months out in the real world to realize my mistake. No more guaranteed summer breaks. No more choice of how you spend your time each day. No more setting up all your classes to be after noon or concentrated in two days, leaving the other days free. You can’t afford a nice room like the one in your dorm… you end up living in the seediest circumstances you’ve seen in your life, or with more roommates than you’ve ever been willing to consider before. Or (horrors!) back at home with your parents. It doesn’t take long to realize that you had it REALLY good when you were in college.
That’s why I favor the notion of a gap year. I think it would have helped me to appreciate my collegiate experience as the gift that it was, if I’d had to deal with some of the realities of life past school… before I started those last four years of formal education…
But I’m romanticizing, here. I used to think that, before I went back to graduate school full time. At least during grad school I knew I had a good deal going on (full salary plus tuition covered…), but I quickly reverted to my old practices, sleeping in whenever I had a chance, procrastinating par excellence, and otherwise not being tremendously responsible with my time. Granted, a full decade had gone by since my bachelor’s degree, so I had more maturity to bring into the game, and I studied hard when necessary, but I wasn’t the driven workaholic that (in my dreams) I should have been.
So… gap year or no? I don’t know. I have a growing uneasiness with the length of time that we’re prolonging adolescence in our culture. I understand that life expectancies are greatly improved, but it seems strange to me that so many people are facing the “I have to grow up and be responsible” milestone around their 30th birthday… that’s a full three decades of irresponsibility! Think of all the man-years of potential productivity that we’re wasting! (ha ha–should that be called “person-years”?)
Personally, I think that joining the military, getting in a couple years of enlisted service, and then going to college–something that the military very much encourages its junior members to do–is a really good way to build life experience, responsibility, character, and a sense of knowing who you are and what you want before you commit to a major. Every person that I’ve seen who’s taken this route is the better and the richer for it… and each one of them valued their college education in a way that the clueless 17-year-old that I was when I started school could never have imagined.
Posted by Kjirstin 
