Is a gap year a good idea after the Leaving Cert?

AS I GET closer and closer to the exam of doom (ie, the Leaving Cert), the possibilities of the following year start to fill my mind, writes Ellie Menton.

I’m always so dead set on getting to college, but a gap year has crossed my thoughts every now and then.

I don’t think the gap year is actually a big part of the Irish scene. I don’t know many people who have considered it, let alone actually done it. I began to wonder if the gap year would even be worth it, and so I asked around, and found surprisingly positive feedback.

A friend of my mother’s has taken a gap year this year; in fact, his whole family has. They’ve put work and school on hold, and they’re travelling across the globe. It sounds like such a phenomenal thing, doesn’t it? Being in so many places in such a short amount of time, or attending schools in different countries; it’s not something every person can say they’ve done, or will ever do. I can’t help but feel it’s something worth doing for all of us.

My cousin took a gap year right after his Leaving Cert. I thought he had a job near where he lived, but the next thing I knew he was in Spain teaching English. To be honest I’m not sure whether even he saw that coming, but a year on, he’s back home, and he’s much surer of what it is he wants to do. He’s changed ideas, developed himself, and grown into his skin a little better. I’m genuinely impressed by the self-growth he accomplished within the space of one short year. It seemed to be a truly transformational experience.

He told me it was a maturing process, but that you have to make the most of your time. He also mentioned that going abroad was essential for him; being submerged in a different culture left a big impression. Going to his friends’ universities to see the different atmospheres in different institutions also helped him to make a decision on where it was he actually wanted to go. However, while spending time with all of these amazing people is important, it’s just as important to spend time with yourself.

Without reflecting, you’ll never learn anything about who you really are. “It’s nine months,” he said, “it’s very easy to let time slip and lose the chance to make the most of your year!” I’ve been contemplating recently taking a gap year myself. Though I’m relatively sure of what it is I want to do, and what it is I’m aiming to achieve, I also think that little breath of fresh air would do me good. I could take a year to work, save some spending money for college, and maybe go to university a little more grown up than I am now. I really think the gap year is something that it greatly underestimated in Ireland, and that it is something that deserves a bit more thought.