Steve Jobs was not the first person to visit India for a gap year and subsequently make it big. While I am not implying a direct link between the two events, here are a few more examples. Mark Zuckerberg visited Nainital — on Steve Jobs’ advice — in the early stages on Facebook; Benedict Cumberbatch moved to Darjeeling after Harrow to teach Buddhist monks; 19-year-old Mother Teresa’s trip to Darjeeling inspired her to build the Missionaries of Charity; feminist writer Gloria Steinem spent two years in India after college helping young women organise against injustice.
While India is a popular “gap year” destination, the only gap year Indian students knew till recently was the one you took to prepare for medical or engineering entrance tests. The “gap year” to explore, travel, breathe and find yourself is very new and shrouded in much excitement and many apprehensions. Will it affect my college admissions positively or negatively? Will it help me get the answers I am looking for?
What is finding myself anyway?
I see it as knowing what you want. Sometimes, students go through school and college pleasing teachers, parents and the larger “system”. The end of school or college often creates a huge void — how do I choose my next move? How do I know what is right for me?
A gap year allows students to take on self-exploratory activities like internships, short courses, and travel without the pressure of making a commitment. This provides the space for students to hear their own voice within and watch how they resonate with things (or don’t). The “answer” may be a life-changing “aha!” moment (“I know I want to teach”; “Research is my thing”; “The answer is Law”) or simply be a realisation of your strengths and weaknesses, letting you fall in rhythm with yourself.
Some famous examples include Nigella Lawson who worked as a chambermaid in Florence where she discovered her love for Italian cooking; Dan Brown who spent a year in Spain studying art history which would become the subject of his bestselling books including the Da Vinci Code; and Charles Darwin whose theory of evolution was inspired by a trip to the Galapagos Islands as a travel companion to naturalist Captain Robert Fitzroy.
While a gap year does not guarantee such resounding success, it certainly allows students to move ahead with greater purpose and less stress.
Some ideas to make your gap year count:
Pursue a “passion project”: Do you want to work on a film? A blog? A business? Work in a kitchen? Go on a trek on the Himalayas? Work with animals? Pursuing a passion project without the pressure of making it a lifelong career or a runaway success is one of the biggest opportunities that gap years offer.
Learn a new skill or develop a new hobby: A new language, diving, cooking, rock climbing, guitar, tennis, or running may not become careers for you but will provide you the balance that you may need once you take on the pressure of studies again and eventually, that of a job.
Join a gap year programme: While most universities in the U.S. and U.K. offer gap year programmes that include travel, volunteering and skill building, this is still a new concept in India. Some U.S. universities also offer scholarships for gap year programmes to deserving students.
Meet people who could be your role models: Do you admire the teen tech blogger? Or the young girl who took over her father’s conservatory? Or the banker who became a famous novelist? Seek out the people whose career trajectory you admire, and get answers to your own dilemmas in their journeys.
Blog about your gap year: India has few students taking the plunge and if you go down this path, your journey will have tremendous interest and value to those still thinking about it. And well, you could end up with a popular blog or at least a serious hobby to spend your life with.
Dos:
Plan your gap year while still in school or college. Decide if you want to get admission into your dream course and ask for a deferment or only apply the next year. Many colleges support students taking a gap year by deferring their admission offer. Check with your college — or dream college — what their gap year policy is.
Plan your gap year in three-month chunks, for example: chill and travel, internship, short course, social project and so on.
Find a place to report to almost every day when you intend to “work from home” — your parents’ office or a co-working space. If studying for entrance tests, join coaching classes!
Donts:
Allow your indecision about whether you are taking a gap year or not to result in poor academic outcomes. If you plan in advance, you could focus on board results during your last year in school or college and spend the gap year honing your application and improving test scores.
Take more than a month of “doing nothing”. While a gap year allows you to take a breather before you jump back onto the academic roller-coaster, too much fallow time can erode your ability to focus and persevere once you are ready to bounce back.
Plan extensive “work from home” periods. These can be challenging for the most disciplined; and a teenager with time, Internet and privacy may need superhuman willpower to work consistently.
The writer is the author of The Ultimate Guide to 21st Century Careers. She leads Inomi Learning, a Gurugram-based career and college guidance firm. info@inomi.in
