04 Sep 2016

When it comes to gap years, overseas travel is where it’s at for the bulk of Aussie school leavers. If you mention to anyone that you’re taking some time out between school and uni then the first thing they’ll probably say is ‘wweet–where are you travelling to?’ It’s expected that you’ll be jetting off to go pub crawling around London, diving in Belize or tomato-lobbing in Spain.

But what if circumstances have conspired such that you’ll be spending a gap year at home? Does that mean you’re in for a third-rate 12 months that will be a wasted time in your life and too embarrassing to admit to? When it seems like everyone in your peer group is gramming photos of themselves atop sky-touching Alps in Switzerland, or downing pork-knuckle at Oktoberfest in Germany, you can see how it would feel that way.

A gap year at home doesn’t need to be second-rate though. There are of life-enriching ways to spend the time–avid consumers of Year 13 will know there are decent pools of gap year goodness to dive into right here in Aus, like working as a Jackaroo or Jillaroo. You won’t need to travel at 36,000 feet, crushed between screaming toddlers and sweating fatties for leg-numbing hours on end, to take up opportunities like these, but you will still need to travel outside your neighbourhood.

But maybe you’re looking at gap year options where you don’t need to travel at all. There’s a host of reasons why this may be the case, including affordability, injury, or the fact of having snared a part-time job that you need to stay in your hood for. Maybe you just don’t want to travel.

Whatever the reason, it’s going to leave you hanging with your Mum and Dad, while your peers could be sampling strange-named beers, chatting up cute foreigners or eating exotic foods. So you can expect to be bitch-slapped by FOMO a few times during the course of the year. That’s not fun. But it’s going to keep slapping at you if you don’t fight back. You need to make your own adventures at home.

And you can. There are reasons overseas trippin’ is fun, including that it’s an adventure that offers the opportunity to acquire new knowledge, have new experiences and meet new people. These features do give a person war stories and a fuller set of life experiences, but they’re also a grab bag of goodies that you can get at home if only you’ll look. There are plenty of ways that you can have just as great a time and advance yourself as a person as much as your overseas-travelling-peers.

Jealous of that friend who’s posting pics of themselves gulping down French Fry-encrusted hot dogs on a stick in the States, or the mouth-watering pastries they’ve sampled at some quaint-looking French café? Make the effort to experiment yourself–become a gastronomic adventurer in your gap. You don’t have to travel to try new foods or become a more learned foodie.

Unless you’re a playboy millionaire with spare cash and time you haven’t been to every restaurant or eatery in your town or city. Pick random restaurants that offer dishes you haven’t tried and plan nights out–save up, tee up some friends, and make a good night of it. You could take cooking classes and learn how to conjure a mean dish yourself.

And don’t stop at food–for every new experience a backpacking gappy has, for every new sight they see and new thing they learn, there are adventures to be had and cool stuff for you to learn at home, all without having to blow your bank balance and wake up at 5am every morning to catch your tour bus. Learn a new language, or how to play a musical instrument. Do a Toastmasters course and become verbally dexterous. Socialise, play sports, read cool books and enjoy your time off.

Travelling overseas is definitely fun–awesomely so, but in and of itself it doesn’t make you cool to do it. What makes you cool is being interested in something, engaged–what makes you cool is sinking your teeth into experiences and opportunities in the world that surrounds you.

That happens when you learn and adventure, and ultimately what will make you a more interesting and rounded person is taking on challenges and ascertaining knowledge that your average Joe wouldn’t necessarily have. Travel is one way of doing this, but it’s not the only way. A gap year at home can rock, you just have to put in the effort to make it so.