<p>Congratulations. Now move on, do your best, and no regrets! :)</p>
<p>The economy is in the dumpster right now. There are not a lot of jpbs for h.s. kids. It is a good time to be in school, so you can hit the ground running when the economy heats up. Suck it up. Go to school. There are a lof of kids that wish they had your opportunities. Snap out of it.</p>
<p>Have a great year! You’ve made a big decision in a mature way. Don’t listen to the nay sayers, it’s your life to live.</p>
<p>Hi revoltxo, thanks for giving us an update. It sounds like you have some great plans to kick off your gap year and, hopefully, it will pan out just the way you want.</p>
<p>It’s entirely natural to have some second thoughts, especially when the path you’ve chosen is outside the ‘cultural norm’. Again, everyone is different and everyone has their own circumstances to consider, nevertheless, for what it’s worth, my observations of my daughter and her extended circle of first-year university aged friends are these: </p>
<p>(1) of the young people who commenced college straight away, a percentage assuredly should have taken a gap year. I think now that the second semester of the Australian university academic year is underway that even their parents would agree with this (again, mine is a single anecdotal perspective, but the parents of a lot of these young people seemed to be concerned that if their children didn’t commence university straight away that they’d never go or that they’d have too much time on their hands or somesuch). Unfortunately, whether in rebelling against these (distrusting?) attitudes or for a multitude of other reasons, this group - which isn’t a large percentage, but isn’t a negligible number either - has been battling academically with the lack of structure and reduced number of scholastic contact hours and/or is having difficulty handling the transition to a more adult social life (in Australia, the legal drinking age is 18 and some are mesmerised by the effects, although most aren’t so enamoured after the first 4-5 university weeks) - and often both;</p>
<p>(2) of the young people who commenced college straight away, a more significant percentage may be battling the academic and social issues (and, frankly, everyone does to a greater or lesser degree - it would be surprising if various issues didn’t arise, actually), but are really concerned about their majors (in Australia, one commences one’s major immediately from secondary school). This group is now needing to recalibrate and go through the hard work of considering and locating new academic directions, all while trying to keep up with their studies in areas they have discovered they aren’t very fond. Everyone is sympathetic, but it is difficult and it effectively means adding another semester or two to one’s degree time. It’s hard to say, but maybe if they’d had more time earlier, these young people might have made different decisions at the outset of their university careers;</p>
<p>(3) unquestionably though, the majority of young people who commenced college straight away are extremely pleased with their academic directions and are making their academic and social transitions reasonably comfortably.</p>
<p>Of the 25-30% of my daughter’s friends (as well as my daughter) who are in the midst of their gap years, one of the many purposes for taking this time does seem to be being filled: it seems to me that about four or five months after starting the gap (and they’ve all been working - some while travelling and some in anticipation of travelling, which is starting about now), they all seem to be volunteering some variant of ‘I’m ready to start uni now’ or ‘I’ve been thinking about x and I can’t wait to get stuck in’. In other words, it seems - like you - they needed some time to truly consider their choices. Hopefully when they actually commence their studies the depth and breadth of their gap year experiences will be of assistance. If nothing else, they’ll have made some fascinating memories.</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck in your year’s endeavours. If one can’t take this kind of time now, when can you? I hope you have a ball.</p>
<p>I too hope you have a wonderful time & congratulate you on getting a job with this challenging economy! Gap years (like everything else) are what you make of them. It sounds like you have made some good plans and have some ideas that you will work out. </p>
<p>I would really urge you & your family to go & talk with the bank and/or other financial advisors you know and trust about taking on $25K/year for 4 years or $100,000 for your undergraduate education–whether you & your family would even qualify for it and alternatives. That is a LOT of money and as you noted previously will weigh down many of the options open to you upon graduation.</p>
<p>revoltxo-good for you for thinking things through and making a decision that is right for you. And if one day you find yourself walking down “the aisle” and that doesn’t feel right, pay attention to that feeling too! Advice: start checking out the wwoof sites early. I know kids who were unhappy where they landed.</p>