How many college students come to college knowing exactly what they want to do with their careers? Many students enter college with no clear plan for their future. The burden to get a higher education and enter the work forces pressures us to attend college despite the fact that many of us have no clue what the future holds for us. From a young age, our focus is to do well in school so that you can get into a good college that will help lead to a successful career. And on top of that, pay off all of our student debt. We are told that we have essentially no break as we must succeed in life. This forces us to apply for colleges with no clear plan on a major. “We’re pressured to come to college in order to find a job to be financially stable, but we have to worry about student debt as a result of receiving a higher education.” Students switch from major after major in order to find what they’re interested in. 

When a classmate from my high school made the decision to take a gap year instead of attending college right after graduation, many other students judged her decision. While many students have no clear plan for their future after graduation, the thought of a gap year is typically not present within our minds. Rather, we are told not to even consider a gap year. While we can gain new experiences and learn more about ourselves and what we are truly passionate about through them, many stray away from this idea due to the worries that they might not be able to financially support themselves during this time period. If you must support yourself financially, taking a gap year would be even more stressful due to the fact that you must worry about getting a job.  “Gap years are hard because if you are not depending on someone else, you have to worry about having a job to support yourself. And at that point, just go to college.” “If gap years didn’t hurt our future, I would definitely want to take one.” Oftentimes, gap years are looked down upon within professional settings. Due to a concern that a gap year may not look good on a resume and may hinder our abilities to succeed financially in the future, we completely disregard an opportunity for us to gain experience and learn more about ourselves and our interests. 

Many European countries provide a stipend for students living on their own, making gap years more acceptable. However, with college being a step in the ladder of success for Americans in addition to supporting yourself financially on your own, gap years in the States are not an ideal option.