In our community gap years are becoming more normalized. I know 5 people who recently took a gap year. We recommended to my daughter that she take one. We were worried that she wouldn’t accept it but she seems OK with it. She has a July birthday and missed a year of school for medical reasons and needs another year to mature and further develop the executive function area. We didn’t want her to crash and burn the first year of college. We’re planning it now - 12 weeks Spanish class in Barcelona with EF and then 4 months working on a permaculture farm/research center on a volcanic island in Nicaragua. She’s waiting to hear back from all her schools to decide where to attend and then ask for a deferral. I’ve been to a few gap year talks and one worry is the writing capabilities diminish that year. Also, she’s going into engineering so she will need to review calculus before starting school. I’m not worry about the other classes.