GAP YEAR- MAKING THE MOST OF LIFE

To introduce this topic, it is worth mentioning that a so called gap year is becoming more and more popular among many students worldwide.

Striking findings show that at least 75% of students decide to take a pause during their education. It is of great importance to say that it is not a bad thing at all. On the contrary, it is a good thing for many reasons, although we must not neglect the fact that many students, after the gap year finishes, decide to quit of their education permanently.

However, for many students a gap year is an integral part of their education. They have this feeling that they should be involved into something more than just studying. Some of them choose volunteer work abroad, far away from their own country, just to experience a totally different environment, and to establish new social contacts with people from various ethnic and racial backgrounds.

Students want to share their insights with other people. Moreover, it may change their entire sense of well-being. They characterize a gap year as an important source of both pleasure and learning.


Speaking of volunteer work, some students decide to work with handicapped people. Sometimes what they learn from that experience is unexpected. A chance to work with people who may be difficult in countless ways is one way in which they also learn about themselves, their strenghts and weaknesses.

Consequently, that kind of an ongoing experience may be very important in shaping all their future social interactions. Yes, it is hard, but pure pleasure.due to the fact that they are not evaluated and they will get a chance to expand their experience.

Students usually choose this option in order to enrich their academic knowledge. This experience can occasionally even lead to what careers they decide to pursue after. It gives them a chance to open eyes to new possibilities for their own future they simply had not thought of before.

Some of the best interactions and the most powerful learning experience occur when students work together to achieve a common goal. In some cases, it leads to lasting friendships that students might have never made otherwise.

All in all some students who met a whole new diversity of friends throughout their gap year wherever they were, gained one of their most valuable experiences.

They learned how to adjust to a new surrounding. Before taking a gap year,they seemed to be caught in a downward spiral of boredom and lack of activities.

They turned a situation around and finally reached the tip of the iceberg.