Gap Year

At the moment, I am in my first year of sixth form but I'm starting to think about the future and my life after college. I have a series of universities lined up if I want to go there but I'm also considering a gap year.

When I was at school, me and some friends were looking at what we could do when we were older and stumbled across something called Camp America. I got a little too into it and started requesting brochures but when they were delivered I freaked and started to ignore their emails. But now I am considering it again.

Thinking about flying to America to work on a camp with American children really excites me because I think about the (kind of) camps I've been on - like Alton Castle and Towers in Wales - and how fun that was and how close you get to the staff. I've been weighing up the pros and cons but I'm still not too sure!

Pros

1: great experience

2: chance to meet new friends

3: clear your head before univerisity

4: see more of the world than you otherwise would

5: have the chance to start a new life

6: make a difference

7: have something great to put on your CV

8: make yourself happy

9: take a break from education

Cons

1: possible wasted year

2: may not be what you expected

3: too expensive

4: demotivating so you don't want to go to univerisity

5: home will feel awful compared to it

6: home sickness

7: more work, less play

8: unemployment afterwards

I've also found something that looks pretty cool called USA Summer Camp Exchange where you spend a couple months at a camp in the North-East of America teaching children about sports before going on a road trip with the staff. It looks great and the cost isn't too high but you have to be at least 19 by June 1st of that year - which I won't be - so I'd either have to take 2 years off which is a little too risky, or wait until the summer before possibly going to uni meaning I'd have to find something else to do.

The other thing I've heard that's wrong with taking gap year is being behind when you finally do attend university, because you'll be a year behind your college friends or a year older than those in your class. Although at uni this isn't as much of a problem, it will still be very different to school and college!

Instead of working on a camp, you can go on programs especially for students where you typically have to find your own placement which would be slightly harder but more realistic than an organised camp. When I went to Disney World in 2011, there was a girl there helping people onto rides who was from Manchester and was on her gap year so that's always a possibility but definitively more work than play!

I know the first year of sixth form (or lower sixth as some people call it) is a little early to be thinking about gap years but I want to make sure I'm ready and organised before I just throw myself at the world!

That's all I have to say on gap years for now but there is something else I've decided to do: I'm finally going to broadcast my blog on Twitter so my friends and family can read it. I feel like it's time to be honest with people and to face up to any questions people have.

georgiadaisyiv