TAKING TIME: THE GAP YEAR EXPERIENCE

BY FLYNN HIRRELL

In mid-May of 2021, I stood in line waiting anxiously for my high school counselor to call my name. I vividly remember looking at all the people around me, a stadium full of high school seniors about to grab their diplomas and head out for futures that consisted of college, military, trade school—futures with a clear plan. I stood and thought to myself, “what am I supposed to do now?” I had applied to zero colleges, I was unsure of what career path I wanted to go down, and even at one point strongly believed that I simply didn’t have the brains for college. All these thoughts and factors led me to take a gap year. After completing my gap year and after attending college for almost a full semester, I can now say that taking a gap year has been the smartest decision I have ever made. What’s unfortunate however is the amount of misinformation I’ve heard about concerning gap years. In order to combat these misconceptions, I’d like to share my own experience in response to three of the biggest myths about gap years.