A debate that often fuels conversations assessing gap years is that of burnout versus momentum. In my personal experience, I felt as though I couldn’t transition directly from A-Levels to halls, societies, and pre-readings for lectures right away.
So, a year out can be a perfect opportunity to overcome the physical and mental tolls of exams. This can be the first chance you are ever given in your academic life to make your own decision, and can prove really useful in terms of understanding yourself!
Nevertheless, moving to university after A-Level summer can mean that your head is already in the game, making the transition from A-Levels to higher education smoother, and less jarring.
Contrary to popular belief, there is more to an individual’s personal experience than a “gap yar”, spending “daddy’s money”, and “finding yourself”.
Travelling can pull back the curtain, and reveal an area of the world that you have never seen before. An individual can adapt and witness a plethora of realities, cultures, and ways of life.
Within a gap year, emotional maturity is accelerated...
Within a gap year, emotional maturity is accelerated, which can be crucial in life, to relationships, attitudes, and behaviours. This can certainly help once you make it to university, including those awkward and sometimes heated disagreements surrounding the bin rota in the flat, and the one flatmate who threw a party but left the flat a mess!
Everyone fears FOMO (literally) and it works both ways! Watching your friends pack and move to a new city, potentially hours away, while you are staying as home, is never a comfortable feeling.
A standout brilliance of university is the chance to expand your social circles and meet a myriad of individuals. Watching the friends you have grown up with move out, can conjure a whirlwind of emotion. Yet, the sudden sting of loneliness and uncertainty will soon pass for both situations.
Ultimately, you should remember that everyone’s journey looks different. Most memorably, one of my teachers used to reiterate “comparison is the thief of joy”, and that completely resonates with me. Everyone’s destination is different, so accordingly, their journeys will reflect this difference too.