The gap year: the year of laziness or a really necessary respite in the studies?

Each of us is familiar with the standard scenario of life: first, your parents take you to kindergarten, where you show all your rebellion by finding a way to stay awake during the day; Then you are given a twice-sized bouquet and a bag, and you wait for the last bell to ring for the next 11 years.

This classic scenario does not mean that you will rest well after the long-awaited meeting. Then you enter a university, allegedly consciously, voluntarily, looking to a brighter future. That’s great if true, but too often graduates enter college not for their own self-interest but under pressure from their parents.

Thus, children begin to “learn” what adults impose on them, and this affects the quality of education that is actually obtained for the sake of the “shell”.

However, there is another scenario where graduates who have not decided on the type of future activity and are not under family pressure take a break from their studies. This path is called the gap year. However, very few people choose it.

In this material, we took two stories, in one, the girl entered the university immediately after school, and in the second, the girl chose to study, and we also learned the opinion of a psychologist on how true this is.

first story

“I can’t say that I chose the path to enter university after school. It was something, of course, and he didn’t have a specific plan. For some reason, at that moment I was allowed to be considered independent, but I had no right to refuse this on my own. I was drawn to creativity, I wanted my work to really lead me to a dream and great opportunities. I really really wanted to “go on TV” in particular, and I saw the path to that dream in training a TV presenter or actress. Of course, the parents did not like this plan and it was not taken seriously by them. So, I went to apply to those universities where I passed the total score for the Unified State Examination. It was a four-year undergraduate education without love and special interest. In the third year I wanted to quit everything, but the sense of responsibility towards my mother, who paid for this study, did not allow me to leave the institute. And so, I got a “mandatory” diploma of higher education.

Did I find myself in my profession? NO. The first diploma lies peacefully in the cupboard. At 27, I’m getting the second one I’ve always wanted. And this is a huge difference: now I pay for my education, not my mother, it is not she who led me to study, but I decided for myself that I need it, and that’s interesting. I am no longer rejecting my education and looking for excuses to go to college because it is entirely my choice.”

Masha G.

second story

“I was homeschooled in ninth grade. At the age of seven, thoughts arose about the transition to “remote work”. The reason for this was never disagreements with school or classmates, no, and I always studied well. I left because I understood what I wanted to do and even then I started to earn my first good money. I found myself in advertising, majoring in marketing, and even then, as a seventh grader, I found my first clients. Then I realized that I could cope with my distance learning and this mode would allow me to reach heights in the work that I discovered for myself.

I decided to talk to my mother for a long time, but it turned out that she was also ready to offer me a homeschooling. But I didn’t follow it right away. I wanted integrity but still I finished my studies by the end of ninth grade and already mastered 10th and 11th grades remotely.

As for university, I still plan to pursue a higher education, but it is not for show. I am interested in many things apart from advertising: I am dealing with esotericism, I am studying psychology, especially I want to study as a psychotherapist. So, now it’s already about interest in something new and the learning process in general.

Nastya S.

To understand how acceptable a one-year hiatus scenario is in our society, we asked Ella Dutova, an internationally accredited PCC ICF coach, to share her opinion with The Fashion Vibes.

Coach Ella Dutova

The greatest happiness is when a parent is ready to support their child and follow his or her interests. In this case, five to eight years of university will be a bright and memorable period for him. Of course, during adolescence children make mistakes, but this will be their own decision and the biggest cost will be the time spent learning.

A parent chooses where to continue their child’s education based on certain connections or a vision of great prospects for a teenager.

However, if the already matured child himself does not see these expectations, then the years of study turn for him into prison, hard work and sheer punishment. Of course, a person can graduate from university and even work in the profession he has taken. And then go to a 40-year-old psychoanalyst and figure out at length why he is unhappy in life and dissatisfied with his profession.

I think it’s important to give a young person a chance to make their first and most important decision. This will give him self-confidence and he will be grateful to his family for the entitlement given to him to gain personal experience in the future.

Results

We can say that an empty year is an absolutely normal phenomenon when a graduate takes the time to gain impressions and experience to decide what he wants to be when he grows up. The personal experience of people and the opinion of an expert show that any way is right for each case in its own way and individually.

It’s really hard for some men to decide who they will be at 17, taking into account both their interests and their parents’ needs.

In the interim year, such a graduate can become stronger after passing exams, take an online course in a specialty of interest, try different fields, develop certain skills to understand exactly where he wants to learn his chosen profession.

And a freshman knows that he wants to be a doctor, and for 11 years he deliberately goes to it. We are all different and have the right to choose.