I guess when I was 17, the thought of not going straight to college would have horrified me. But now that my life is a string of one work crisis after another, I’m thinking a gap year would feel quite good right about now.
Youth is indeed wasted on the young. And, for my second cliche of the day, now that I have money, I have no time.
I’d even take a gap month. Okay, a week. I’ll take a week.
When you’re a working adult, they call them sabbaticals. 
You have any vacations coming up, @cypresspat?
Ya, but on sabbatical, one is supposed to do something. I want a big, fat, empty, mindless nothing-of-a-year.
@doschicos, thanks for asking and NO! I do not have any vacations coming up. I have college app season, college decision season, two graduations, son’s wedding, godson’s wedding (overseas), all in the next 9 months. But other than that, pretty quiet around here. And no vacations.
No wonder you need a Gap Year! Although those are best spent doing something as well.
You’ll certainly be busy and hectic but so much moving forward and celebrating in those events, too.
Over the next 9 months, find at least one day to take off as a “mental health day” and focus on you!
My husband took a gap year - October 2017 to October 2018 - for a pretty heinous cancer surgery and treatment.
It wasn’t all that much fun.
We would have preferred a year of college applications and job stress, to be honest.
The root of “sabbatical” is “sabbath,” in which one is supposed to do no work, but of course, in our culture, you are expected to produce something even when you’re not at work. I think I like the term gap year for this reason. You want a gap in work.
My company offers a six week sabbatical for anyone with a certain length of service. They want you to turn in your phones and computer access is turned off.
You cannot show up at work. They want people to be completely unplugged. Most travel to places like Vietnam and hiking Scotland. It just a staycation. Whatever you prefer. You are paid your regular salary.
@eastcoascrazy As I was whining I actually thought of those in an unwanted gap year. For illness. Or job loss. Or lots of other very unwelcome reasons. I had my own not-so-great year off a few years ago, so I do understand. All of my things are good things, just too many on top of a peak work period. I do not think for even a second that I really have it bad. Just having a pity party, and apologies if insensitive.
I’m taking my gap year now…after over 40 years of work in my field.
I don’t think wanting or needing a break is insensitive. I’ve said it before: someone else’s terrible time doesn’t make your hard or hectic time unimportant. Hope you can catch a breather, OP.
However, unless you have an agreement to return to work, having a longer gap in employment may make it harder to get another job, perhaps turning your sabbatical into involuntary retirement.
My H had a ton of personal and sick leave accumulated when we had our kids. He went to his boss and talked about taking some to spend time with the babies after birth. H was told that if he took longer than 6 weeks he’d likely be considered non-essential.
He ended up doing a hybrid leave—worked 4 hours every night MTuThF and full day Wednesday for 6 weeks. It was exhausting and he didn’t have all the “ down time” he had anticipated when he thought our S would be sleeping. He did none of his anticipated projects but he and S bonded well. That was the closest he got to a gap period.
When our first was born, my employer let me work half time for six months. That was a godsend. At the end of that first hectic year, my husband was transitioning from his post-doc to a fellowship so he had 3 months with our toddler son. He has always been especially close to our oldest, and I wonder if that is why.
I own my consultant business, so I could ‘slow down’ if I wanted to. But if I really turned the switch for an extended period of time, it would take equally long to ramp back up. And my real problem is that I’m a girl who just can’t say ‘no.’ Interesting projects (or treasured clients) just call my name and there I am, ready to go. (Boring projects or jerk clients do not get the same reaction). So, I really own this problem and am better at complaining about it than fixing it.
But all this talk of a gap year is making me jealous. Again, at 17 l, I would be horrified. Right now, cartwheels.
Ooh! I love the idea. I took an enforced one year cancer break but that’s not the same as a gap year.
How about something like this?
https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22913/living-and-learning-in-cuenca-independent-stay-and-language-study
Or for a real blowout, 4 1/2 months of sailing the world?
https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/23460/road-scholar-world-academy-sailing-the-southern-route
I think I’d have a hard time getting back to it after a gap year, but I’d have a leg up on doing the other things that interest me. Right now I think I’ll just concern myself with putting two kids through college and go from there. If they were already done, might be able to do more than a gap year.
Fortunately, in my profession and the way I’ve built my practice, I should be able to work when I want (I really do like client engagement) for as long as I want. The key is getting rid of all the stuff you no longer enjoy. At some point, I’ll get rid of the compliance oversight components.
Sorry for the people that took an illness gap year. As for the regular sabbatical, in my current role employer offers no sabbatical or anything like that—possibly this explained why I tend to post about merit aid and tuition exchange??? However I would still love a gap year and no I would never have done that at age 18. Working straight through 35+ years and two kids though and now I am sooooo ready!!! Keep the ideas coming
I took a gap two and a half months last fall when my husband was a visiting professor in Hong Kong. I did spend way too much time (I thought) dealing with a couple of projects long distance especially the first couple of weeks, but other than that it was great. Got to the gym regularly, hiked almost every weekend, took art classes, ate out so much I missed cooking, made to separate extended trips to mainland China, and one to Taiwan. It was great.
Have had plenty of medical “gap years.” What I need now is a year without spouse and other household distractions so I can get some serious work done decluttering, organizing 150,000 photos and getting quilts finished for the women’s shelter. Just have so many projects hanging over my head and no extended stretches of time to DO them.
@Sue22 okay, now we’re talkin’. I knew I couldn’t be the only one. I like the idea of being in a foreign county and learning a new language. Check. Living in a hotel for 44 days? Nope.
I would tweak this, but would need 9 others to join me. Get a villa, somewhere in Spain. France. Italy. Not picky. Need to be sort of close to a train station, because would want to explore other parts of country. And we stay there for 3 months. know nothing to start but gotta figure it all out. Where to buy food. What to buy. How to cook like the locals. How to take advantage of what the country has to offer. Who’s in? No phones. Computers. No work other than basic household chores.
@mathmom Sigh. So jealous. That sounds like heaven.