#teamgapyear

Those of you considering a Gap Year, I have a story to tell you.

My original intention was to take a gap year. After studying for 14 years consecutively, it seemed like the only logical thing to do. It was basically decided that I'd take a year off, do my SATs, and apply for universities.

There's another part to this as well. My father, specifically, didn't want this to happen. He believed that it would slow me down, put me at a disadvantage, as I wouldn't be continuing with the momentum I had before. He believed that this wasn't a smart idea at all, and while he'd support whatever decision I made, this just wasn't the one he prefered.

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a pilot. Then somewhere along Standard 4 (age 10), it hit me that this wasn't a very possible dream, with the high costs of flight school and so on, and hence I went searching for a new passion. Note I say new passion. I was a very diverse child, a lot of things intrigued me, but I had no set passion, and in hindsight, being a pilot was really just one of those. The world always seemed like such a big place to explore, and logically (at that point to me) being a pilot was the only win-win way to do so.

My dad pushed for me to become a chemical engineer, but I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do, and he respected that. I briefly looked into Civil Engineering, and at one point it became the criteria which I used when I looked at schools in Form 3 and 4 (14-15y/o). I became, once again, disenchanted with it, because I discovered I hated Physics (I could do the subject, I understand it, it's just not my thing).

It was there I realized the one common theme of my life so far: Technology. I've always been interested in this, and it became my chosen path. I applied to all my colleges as either a Computer Science or Computer Engineering major.

And yet, part of me remains unsure.

This is the advantage you have. You have an entire year, free of academic bias, on your own, to decide what your next step would be. I simply followed into what I liked, and it may very well turn out to be what I always wanted to do, but it's difficult, and sometimes scary knowing that you're going into this without 100% certainty.

You have the opportunity to increase your certainty, to get proper advice and even to explore your interests. You have time. Take full advantage of this. Don't perceive it as a year of uncertainty, perceive it as a year of understanding exactly what you want to do and why you want to do it.

Use your year wisely, to diversify yourself, or perfect a skill you already have. Yes, those starting immediately may have a headstart in academia, but you have a headstart in life. You'll be spending less time finding yourself and worrying in college and more time focused on your goals.

This isn't a negative. As I saw somewhere a while back, and I'm paraphrasing: "I've always heard people complain of not taking a gap year, but never the other way around"

Make the most of it.