Gap Year

[JakyBF]

In short don't restrict yourself in thinking that life's options are akin to Jez or Mark from Peep Show.

 

[mothy]

I'm on my gap year at the moment but have no real clue of what to do. I'm looking for something to do over the summer months (don't want to miss the end of the season) but need more ideas.

Anyone got any suggestions?

I went on a gap year in Sussex. Had a few naff jobs but did just enough to give he the money to do loads of drugs, drink loads & learn some life experience. Namely working is shit. & I went back to education for 5 years

I hope you get more or if yours than I did mine- but I enjoyed myself

 

[Braggfan]

I was thinking about your post today, and I remembered a bit of good advice someone gave me before I went traveling which was to go and book a flight now. Literally just go and do it. At the very least set yourself a deadline, in a few weeks time and say "I'll book it on that day" and stick to it. It's really easy to let things slip, and before you know it months have passed you by. If you book something and get it set in stone, you have to do it. You'd be amazed how quickly you can put everything together once you've got a leave date.

 

[OvingdeanSeagull]

Good question.

I'm 28. I've had various jobs all over the world, some crap, some great.
I did have a couple of years where my mind was starting to take over and start to fear for the future; "I should be doing this/that/the other", "should settle down", "should buy a house and have a proper career" etc.

In all honesty, I genuinely like not knowing where my life is heading.
I like not knowing where I'll be in 3 months, who I'll be travelling with, or who I'll meet.
There's definitely an element of fear or anxiety, but that's minimal. Most of it is just excitement.

I'm sure one day, no idea when, I'll start to tire down or most likely meet someone serious and look at settling down or whatever.
But I've done 4-5 years in a career (nothing compared to most), and I hated it. I hated being confined to one place for a long time.
I love to be able to just pick up and leave if/when I want, selfish I admit.

I come home every once and a while, I was actually back home for 6 weeks at the end of summer (during a bit of a life wobble mentioned above), got sick of it within 48 hours and made plans to leave again.

The only real genuine negatives for me living this 'nomadic' (I guess?) lifestyle, is a few friends back in Brighton, not being able to play as much football as I want, and missing a lot of the Albion.
If things look good towards the end of the season, I'll definitely be back for the last couple of games, but I'm sure I'll be off again swiftly.

So, a long answer to your question, apologies.
Quick answer; it has played on my mind from time to time, but the overwhelming majority of the time, I'm happy to explore and not know where I'm headed.
There's plenty of time when I'm a bit older to sit around and settle for the ordinary.

Edit: Ask again in 3 years! At 31, the visa options that I'm interested in become unavailable, and I'll have to make some serious decisions by then, if not before!

Wow, thanks for posting this. Reading about your experience has honestly inspired me. I'm currently in my first year of university having deferred a year and worked at a call centre for just over half a year. I don't regret that at at all as I met loads of great people there and made a decent amount money to allow me to live the lifestyle I live now and to hopefully go interailing for a month next summer. It was a good taste of adulthood and matured me a lot in many ways, I would recommend it to anyone despite the job not being overly exciting. Uni is great, having a brilliant time but honestly probably the main reason I decided to go was to put off 'adulthood', and the idea of going into a full time job until I was 60 odd years old. I'd never really considered your lifestyle to be a possibility. Your outlook on life has really opened my mind and made me think about what I might do when I eventually graduate!

 

[StonehamPark]

Wow, thanks for posting this. Reading about your experience has honestly inspired me. I'm currently in my first year of university having deferred a year and worked at a call centre for just over half a year. I don't regret that at at all as I met loads of great people there and made a decent amount money to allow me to live the lifestyle I live now and to hopefully go interailing for a month next summer. It was a good taste of adulthood and matured me a lot in many ways, I would recommend it to anyone despite the job not being overly exciting. Uni is great, having a brilliant time but honestly probably the main reason I decided to go was to put off 'adulthood', and the idea of going into a full time job until I was 60 odd years old. I'd never really considered your lifestyle to be a possibility. Your outlook on life has really opened my mind and made me think about what I might do when I eventually graduate!

One of the worst times of my life was working in a call centre in Brighton. Horrible, fraudulent company.

Get your degree, then you've essentially got a "F*ck You" ticket to get you all over the world.
It'll take you almost anywhere you want, and will especially make living abroad much easier past 31 years old.

Not every day is awesome, however.
It's now -31 degrees. I can't go snowboarding as the ski chair metal gets brittle or something like that.
So I'm stuck all day on NSC, Youtube and PornHub, with a cigarette on the wooden balcony overlooking the mountains every hour or so, whilst the crazy German girl is at work until 5pm, and then my day can start.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

HIPPIE SPENDS 6 MONTHS AND £6,000 TRAVELLING THE WORLD TO FIND HIMSELF; DISCOVERS HE’S A COMPLETE C*NT.

A young hippy from South Gloucestershire says he has been left ‘devastated’ after realising he’s a boring, cliche ****, following an expensive round-the-world trip through countries such as Goa, Mongolia, Peru and Burma.

19 year old Jonty Cockburn told Big Karma the stark understanding hit him whilst he was sat round a drum circle at an organic chickpea farm in New Zealand’s northern island.

The trigger was a sudden awareness that he was in the company of 8 other near-identical looking white, dreadlocked, poncho-wearing, bucket-hat sporting, fire-poi spinning, terribly tattooed idiots.

Cockburn, whose Facebook profile lists his interests as ‘legalisation, hacky-sack [and]… psytrance’, says he is planning to cut his dreadlocks off, throw away his propagator and burn his embarrassing collection of tye-dye t-shirts.

‘I thought I was an individual snowflake, but then I realised that actually, all snow looks the same to the human eye.

I don’t want to sit around anymore talking about how we’re going to change the world with a revolution, only to then consume an entire bag of Cool Original Doritos, watch re-runs of Blackadder, and then fall asleep.

I want to actually do something worthwhile with my life instead.’

Deep stuff, thanks Jonty.

https://big-karma.com/2016/12/16/hi...o-find-himself-discovers-hes-a-complete-****/

 

[StonehamPark]

HIPPIE SPENDS 6 MONTHS AND £6,000 TRAVELLING THE WORLD TO FIND HIMSELF; DISCOVERS HE’S A COMPLETE C*NT.

A young hippy from South Gloucestershire says he has been left ‘devastated’ after realising he’s a boring, cliche ****, following an expensive round-the-world trip through countries such as Goa, Mongolia, Peru and Burma.

19 year old Jonty Cockburn told Big Karma the stark understanding hit him whilst he was sat round a drum circle at an organic chickpea farm in New Zealand’s northern island.

The trigger was a sudden awareness that he was in the company of 8 other near-identical looking white, dreadlocked, poncho-wearing, bucket-hat sporting, fire-poi spinning, terribly tattooed idiots.

Cockburn, whose Facebook profile lists his interests as ‘legalisation, hacky-sack [and]… psytrance’, says he is planning to cut his dreadlocks off, throw away his propagator and burn his embarrassing collection of tye-dye t-shirts.

‘I thought I was an individual snowflake, but then I realised that actually, all snow looks the same to the human eye.

I don’t want to sit around anymore talking about how we’re going to change the world with a revolution, only to then consume an entire bag of Cool Original Doritos, watch re-runs of Blackadder, and then fall asleep.

I want to actually do something worthwhile with my life instead.’

Deep stuff, thanks Jonty.

https://big-karma.com/2016/12/16/hi...o-find-himself-discovers-hes-a-complete-****/

The white guy dreadlocks should have given him a hint long before his trip.
No one knows themselves at 19, however.

I've met a few people fitting that description all over the world, steer well clear.

 

[Soulman]

Hmmm, Gap Year, let's hope so.