What Should You Consider Before Taking A Gap Year?
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When we think about the words ‘gap year’ we often think that
it’s purely for people who are in university and are taking a year out from
study or are taking a year before starting out in their career. However a gap
year can be for everyone, whether you just need a year to yourself to explore
who you are, you are planning on taking the family with you or are the
traditional student who has now completed their studies there are some
important things that you should be considering before going travelling for a
year.
What Do You Pack?
This will depend completely on the type of gap year you are
choosing to take. If you are staying in one place then it may be an option to
take more personal items with you and have the choice to live in accommodation
such as a hdb for rent and even have things like your favourite ornaments shipped over to
make it feel more like home. You may end up with souvenirs that you want to
return home with too as you will have a lot of space to be able to collect
keepsakes/ People have been known to find unique pieces of furniture that they
can’t bear to part with so have them shipped back home. If you’re taking a gap
year on foot and hopping from destination to destination then packing light and
only taking the essentials is probably more suited. Most commonly people tend
to pack a hiking bag and take items such as walking boots, sleeping
bags and portable blackout blind for the hostels.
Where Do You Go?
When taking a gap year it is highly recommended that you
doing a little bit of planning around your destinations and devise a rough
route especially if you are planning on moving around a lot.
If your planning on staying put in one location and living a little more like a
local, possibly to learn a new language and delve into a new culture then where
will probably already be something that you have known for a long time. You
might already have a gap year planned through a programme. If however you are
travelling around and are only planning on spending a few days or weeks in a
one destination it’s a good idea to plan yourself a rough guide, it will prove
useful when your not constantly sitting at the computer trying to figure out
where you want to go next and what there is to see and do. Research is your
best friend when it comes to travel.
What Are Your Options?
There are many options when looking into doing a gap year.
You could be looking to free roam and travel around different countries,
completing a language course, volunteering, teaching, working in summer camps
or travelling around in a motorhome with the whole family, dog included.
Whatever your circumstances it’s wise to do a little bit of digging
around for all the options available to you. There are plenty of services and programmes
that can help you to plan all sorts of gap years that if of course, you don’t
want to plan every detail yourself. If you’re planning on travelling with the
family it is worth looking into the educational needs of your children and
finding out what homeschooling is all about. It can be really easy to educate
on the road but you do need to make sure you have some sort of a plan.
How Are You Funding It?
With a big plan like a gap year, it’s important to think
about how you are going to be funding yourself. Of course, each of the
different gap year options is going to need a different level of funds and some
may even fund you for your expertise for roles such as educational needs. It
would be advised to sit down and make yourself some sort of forecast of
spending requirements including things such as living costs, accommodation
costs and travel costs. Some of the gap year programmes that are out there have
essentials like accommodation included in the form of live in, which is where
you live on site or with a local family. All you have to do is pay your costs
for the duration you want to stay. Been able to stay with a local family can
really immerse you into the real daily living of a country.
Do you have any other things that you should be
considering before taking a gap year? Please share them in the comments section
below.
1 comments
This is such a helpful post! Planning where to go is definitely really important.
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