'Take a gap year and find yourself' - a 16 year old Brianna would've sniggered and said how the heck do you 'find yourself' .
Your parents may say 'no you're going to university' or your school may guide you in a way that makes you feel that if you don't go to university, your doing wrong. "If you don't go to university now... then you never will". My take on this is that you've just spent 14 years of your life in constant education, the past 4 years have been constant exams, testing your ability to learn and create. So, are you really ready to take on and commit to another 3 years of studies at an even harder level? Not to mention at the cost of £36,000 +
'm not saying everyone isn't ready but for those of you who may be unsure, i'd just like to reassure you that taking a gap year or two or even three in my case is totally fine... I'm a prime survivor! It could turn out to be the best three years of your life. You may think you're going to be 'missing out' or be lonely when all your friends venture off, but its your time to create a life for yourself; one that doesn't revolve around grades or numbers. And as chessy as it may sound, you can learn to understand yourself and discover exactly who you are.
To take a gap year you don't HAVE to go travelling or have lots of money. You can get a job and work, save up some money and then if you want to, when you have enough money, go travelling. OR You could learn to drive and maybe buy yourself your first car. You can take up new hobbies and learn about yourself in new adventures. There's so many opportunities you could do in just one year and you don't have to be rich to do them! You could start a blog or youtube channel and take on new challenges. You can do literally ANYTHING you want to because why not? (this is my main motto of 2017 - WHY THE HECK NOT?) there is nothing stopping you from doing anything.
I'm not gonna lie, when all of my friends had the next three years of their life planned out ... I was scared. I was scared because I was one of the only ones not going to university, I was going to be staying at home whilst everyone else moved out to different places all over the UK. But I got a job, studied part-time and made new friends! SIMPLES. You can do part-time courses on the subject you want to do at university just to keep up your knowledge. That way you can meet so many more people and really discover who your true friends really are. And after one year... if you haven't achieved everything you want to yet, take another gap year! If people judge or roll their eyes... Who cares!
Unfortunately in my case my gap years weren't actually planned.. I had been trying to get into drama school; which is a longer and much harder process than going to university (but I'm gonna leave all that out for another time) but I can honestly say the past three years have been totally worth it! And you've just got to ignore it when people don't understand why or how your doing it.
When I was at school there was ZERO help given to any one not going to university and many teachers were shocked when I told them I wasn't. Don't let that discourage you. Do what makes YOU happy and most certainly always do what YOU want! I have learnt so much about myself in the past three years and can now truly identify who I really am. *so cheesy* I feel like at school I always hid behind everyone and blended into the crowd. But as soon as I was thrown into the big wide world, I've discovered that I'm a lot more confident than I originally thought, I don't care what people think of me or what I do anymore.
Hate me, cool. Love me, I LOVE YOU TOO!
I've created so many groups of incredible friends who make me laugh and encourage me to do my best at everything. Something we all 10000% need in our life's, laughter is the best therapy! AND if after all your gap years you no longer feel like going on to further education at a £36,000 charge, then that's fine to. You've saved yourself one hell of a debt!
HOPE this has helped anyone who may be in a predicament between gap year or uni or generally not wanting to go to uni! Whatever it is, do what you want. Because no one else lives your life apart from you! And at the end of be day everything works out. Every year I say Id never of guessed I'd be doing this...this time last year! And I think that's great, who wants to live a boring planned out life????
Thanks again for reading guys!
If you'd like me to do more posts on things you can do in gap years let me know!!
If you'd like me to do more posts on things you can do in gap years let me know!!
TTFN,
B x
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