22 Feb 2018

As you approach the end of your high school days, it’s not uncommon to hear your mates go on about their Totally Epic Gap Year they’ve got planned. It can be frustrating, too, especially when you’re planning on going straight to uni or TAFE and have never really considered the alternatives.

Sheepishly, you start listening to their plans with more curiosity, hearing stories of their older siblings sipping sangria in Spain and trekking through ancient rainforests. Or tagging animals in the wild and helping build schools in remote villages.

Then you hear about Lucy’s brother who just stayed at home working a standard 9-5 job for a year and you realise there’s really no consistency in the stories. That’s when the confusion hits and you decide you have no idea what a exactly a gap year is anymore, and you’re sure your friends don’t either.

What were gap years traditionally?

Gap years have long been the exclusive domain of the privileged. It has historical parallels to the European ‘grand tour’, in which young adults from wealthy families traipsed around France and Italy on horse-drawn carriage appreciating art, practicing their language skills, making contacts, and other similarly poncey activities I presume.

In the 1960’s and 70’s a more modern form of travel started to take shape, with people making trails across Asia and Europe armed with backpacks and only a few bucks. Students started embarking on these trips in the period before starting university, too.

The problem was that despite the search for Authentic Cheap Travelling, you still had to be pretty f*ckin’ well off to just forgo work or study for a year to chase sunsets in foreign places.

What do they look like now?

What’s pretty dope these days is that gap years come in so many different shapes and sizes that they become so much more accessible to people of all backgrounds. Sure, some people are still going away on daddy’s credit card for a year, but they’re in the clear minority. Working holiday arrangements (like UK Pubs, Jackaroo/Jillaroo or WWOOFing) means people are now able to fund themselves with jobs during their gap year, reducing cost barriers for an awesome opportunity.

Some people even split their gap years with six months of working at home, followed by a period of leisurely travel. People are also using their gap years to focus on developing themselves professionally, entering full-time employment or seeking out volunteer options abroad. For some, gap years are a necessary way to earn enough money to allow them to start uni later.

Another interesting trend among gap year takers is the time in which they take them. They are no longer limited to the year before starting university, and more people are taking time off during their degrees, after them, or even later in life when they’re between jobs or about to embark on a drastic career change. Basically, gap years today are what you want them to be–they’re a year for you to focus on whatever you want.

Why are we taking them?

There are clear practical reasons for taking gap years, and any number of them might apply to you. You might need a break from studying for a while, or you might want to make some serious dosh before starting uni. Maybe it’s an awesome job opportunity you can’t pass on, or you just want to experience the workforce and independence for the first time; even just having itchy feet is a totally valid reason to take a gap year.