The first thing I’d like to say is that, after the initial carefree summer period when your exams are over and your friends are still here, starting your gap year is quite a shock. Come September, I was saying goodbye to my best friend Clare (whom I was rarely seen without at school, to the extent that some teachers occasionally got us mixed up!), and my boyfriend James and, although I’d always known in the back of my mind that this was going to happen, I’d never really considered how it would affect me. With Clare headed for Glasgow and James to Keele, I lost what had been daily contact with the two people I’m closest to and that was very hard at first.

Even those of us who’d decided to take gap years started to see less and less of each other, simply because we’d lost the social platform that being at school had provided for us. So, for me, the beginning of my gap year was a fairly lonely time and I’ll admit that I began to wonder whether I’d done the right thing. From the very first mention of the words “gap year”, I’d been convinced it was what I wanted and hadn’t hesitated in the slightest when applying for a deferred place at university. However at this point, I was starting to feel I’d been left behind while my friends were moving on and starting a new chapter in their lives. They all seemed much happier to me than those of us who were still at home – making new friends, seeing new places, learning new things – and it occurs to me now that this is probably because they still had the other fundamental thing that school provides: a routine. They had gone from lessons and homework to lectures and seminars and, although university is an entirely different experience to school, they still had some degree of focus and purpose. Of course, everyone I know who took a gap year had big dreams and a strategy to make them come true, but having a plan for the distant future is very different from having a plan for the day.

At the beginning of my gap year, I’d wake up and wonder what I was going to do with my day and, although this was exciting at first, it soon became boring. So my advice to you is to find yourself something to do as early on as you can, and as soon as you’ve started doing it, start thinking about what you’re going to do next. Although I found the lack of routine scary at first, I soon remembered why it had appealed to me in the first place: freedom. I could do what I wanted with this year and I was determined not to waste it.

And I haven’t! So far, I’ve worked at various galleries from Oxford’s Ashmolean to the Tate St Ives, experienced life as a Next stock room assistant (believe me, you can’t afford to have career aspirations if you want to make enough money to go travelling!) and spent the most amazing two months of my life in Australia – the first with one of my best friends, Jess, and the second with my parents. Doing the gallery work experience, especially at a place as prestigious as the Tate, has given me an invaluable foundation for my degree in Art History as I got to meet so many talented and experienced people, and my time at Next really showed me the meaning of hard work and made me all the more determined to go for my dreams and ultimately end up in a career I’m really passionate and enthusiastic about. However, it was my trip-of-a-lifetime to Australia that I know will be the highlight of my gap year. The idea came about during a Year 11 Biology lesson – when I admit that Jess and I didn’t have all 100% of our attention on the functions of xylem and phloem – so as you can imagine, when the idea became a reality nearly three years later in February of this year, it was pretty special.

We’d invested so much time and effort into the planning of this trip that it would have been a huge disappointment if our time there had have been anything less than brilliant, but needless to say it was even better than that. We landed in Sydney and spent the best part of a week there before flying up to Cairns in Northern Queensland and travelling back down from there to Sydney via such amazing places as the Whitsunday Islands, Noosa and Byron Bay, and steadily making our way through the unofficial “Things To Do Before You Die” list, ticking off such fantastic things as white water rafting, hot air ballooning, feeding dolphins, walking on the purest white sand imaginable, snorkelling, scuba diving, table dancing, cuddling koalas – oh, and getting so sunburnt you can’t move and having all your stuff stolen from your room while you sleep. (Note to self: it’s all part of the experience..!)

So when it comes to the crunch, would I recommend a gap year? Absolutely – if you like a challenge and a bit of adventure, it’s worth every second you might have spent worrying about whether or not it’s the right thing to do.

You’ll have your ups and downs and there will be times when you feel a bit lonely or bored and you can’t wait to get to uni, and you’ll have your fair share of surprises (mine came in the form of glandular fever), but if you’re prepared for that and are willing to do everything you can to make the most of your year of freedom then go for it. It gives you the chance to do what you want, when you want, how you want, to be who you want or even discover who you want to be. So what are you waiting for?

More Gap Year Experiences...

Caroline Matthews - Raleigh International and Gap Activity in Ecuador

Merryn Everitt - Studying in Spain and Travelling in Canada

We shall be sending an appeal in the next newsletter for students and ex-students to write an account of their work experience and GAP Year activities so we can build an online library that students can access to see what to expect from their GAP Year or Work Placement, which placement they would find interesting and who to contact.

If you would like to be involved in this project or you would like further information please could you send your contributions (300 – 600 words) to the Communication & Development Office, 100 Rochester Row, London SW1P 1JP or email Kate Jones, the Website Administrator.