I decided to take a gap year after graduating high school (June 2019- September 2020) and this is how it went. Was it a good idea? What would I have done better? What was the best part?
Why did I take a gap year?
First of all, I decided to take a gap year because I feel like I needed a break from studying and the academic world. I needed time for myself, to reflect on what I want to do in the future and to finally have time to fully focus on me and my passion (travel, photography and blogging!)
In high school, I felt pressured to always work. I felt like I should always be revising for the next exam, the next presentation and it was taking over my life. At a point where if I wasn’t doing something school-related, I would feel guilty. It was hard for me to focus on my passion with that mindset.
As a straight-A student in high school, many would have assumed that I wanted to go into a top university and study my life away right after high school. But that is definitely not the case. I realized that I saw school as something that defined my worth. I would get straight As because if I got lower then I would see myself as a failure. That’s why I took a gap year because I needed a break from that horrible mindset.
I had big goals for my gap year, I wanted to travel a lot, try to make as much money as I could with photography and blogging and just enjoy every moment. I even wanted to potentially turn into a full-time travel blogger/photographer (which was definitely a huge goal), I wanted to make a full-time income so that I didn’t need to go back to university the next year. At least that was my goal, but did I achieve it?
What did I do/achieve?
Going into my gap year I was already making some money from Instagram (working with an online magazine) but it was definitely nothing big yet. In July, I took photos at a festival for them. It was my first time photographing an event so it was definitely a great experience.
I wanted to start working with brands, creating content for their social media. So I decided to send a bunch of DMs to small brands on Instagram. Believe it or not, it leads me to a long term job with a small soap brand! I was super grateful to get that! I wanted to get myself out there as a photographer and grow my portfolio so I decided to take photos at another festival as a volunteer.
The travelling starts…
In September, I went on my first gap year trip. I went on a roadtrip with my family from Boston to Niagara Falls. You can read about it here.
After this trip is when I decided to start my travel blog! I spent the month of October discovering and learning all about the blogging world. My first blog posts were published and I was eager to see where this journey would take me.
November was when I headed to Jordan for a week. It was one of my favourite trips ever and definitely the peak of my gap year. I got to see Petra, float in the Dead Sea and Explore Wadi Rum! You can read more about my Jordan experience here. After coming back, I was excited to write a lot of blog posts and edit all the photos I had taken. Little did I know, this was going to be the last trip of my gap year…
I spent December working on my travel blog, photography and doing my work for the soap brand. Of course, I spent a lot of time with my family around Christmas time. Before we knew it we were celebrating the end of 2019 and saying cheers to a new decade. I was so excited! I had so much faith and plans in 2020 and I was sure that 2020 was going to be my year.
2020
One of my other goals during my gap year was to travel solo. As someone who is very shy and socially anxious, it was hard for me to actually book a trip on my own. So I decided to do a day trip on my own to Bern. It’s not the same as taking a plane there but I felt proud of myself doing that on my own. I also went to Zurich for a meeting alone! During the beginning of the year, I also managed to get a job with a hotel for which I created a bunch of videos and photos!
I was also planning on booking other trips for the next months and already had a trip planned to Dubaï in March.
Then the pandemic started
But then March came and the pandemic started…the Dubaï trip got cancelled and I realized that travelling was probably not going to be possible till the end of my gap year…
No one expected it to happen. It was hard for me because as someone who wants to base their career on travelling, I saw myself stuck in a rut. But things turned out better than expected. During the months of quarantine, I wrote a blog post about things to do at home while bored at home and it went viral. I was so excited, I reached over 60k readers in under a month. I couldn’t believe it. My blog before was only getting around 5 readers a day. This event motivated me to write more and more.
That is definitely one thing that kept me going during the qurantine months (March-May). I had a couple of video and photo projects here and there and overall I was doing good.
But then I realized something, I was pressuring myself to make more money with my passion that I ended up not liking it anymore. That’s when I said to myself, I need to separate the two. I need to find something that will make me money that isn’t related to my passion. That way, I won’t feel pressured. So that’s when I entered the Virtual Assistant world. I decided I wanted to become a Pinterest VA. I learned all I needed to in a month (June) and started to work for free. But after a month or two doing so I felt drained. I was doing this to make money but I didn’t like it, so, I put that aside. (I still offer the service though)
That’s when I said to myself to focus 100% on my blog and photography and just produce content on the daily as much as I can. And this is what I am doing now!
In August, I started to learn how to drive and now I’m in the process of getting my licence!!
What would I improve?
To be honest, I would have planned it out better. I had these big goals and aimed so high that I overlooked reality. At the same time though I am glad I didn’t plan too much since all my travel plans past march would have gone to pot.
I don’t necessarily regret what I did at all, but say the pandemic didn’t happen, I know I still wouldn’t have found the courage to travel alone and to just go for it.
I would improve my vision that I had at the beginning of my gap year.
What did I learn?
If the pandemic didn’t happen, who knows where this gap year would have brought me. But I learned a lot during this year. I learned a whole lot about myself and understood myself better. I realized that achieving your dreams requires a whole lot of work and dedication and that they won’t come overnight. Also, I came to the conclusion that I took a lot of what I had in my life before the pandemic for granted. The fact that we were able to travel anywhere in the world whenever we wanted, the fact that we could just go to concerts, etc…I now only realize how much I relied on external experiences to make me happy.
Was it worth it?
Yes definitely. I wouldn’t have seen myself going straight to university. I didn’t exactly achieve my dream of being a full-time travel blogger but this year has made my goals clearer and I am definitely a step closer to achieving them.
Should you take a gap year?
Yes if you feel lost in life. If you want to experience new things and travel(if the pandemic lets it), if you want to learn more about yourself and know what it’s like to be left to yourself for a whole year.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post about my gap year. Everyone’s gap year is different so I hope mine made you see a different perspective about the benefits of taking a gap year!
