Why I Didn't Go on a Gap Year

I often get asked if I took a year out before I started university, and when I say no I get a lot of questions about why not. It seems to be getting more and more common for people to leave school and take some time to work or travel before continuing on to higher education. I love to travel, and have plenty of savings so that was an attractive option, and extra cash is always an attractive option for a poor student but nonetheless I decided against it for several reasons.

I would love to travel, and I am still considering it as an option for after graduation. However, I am a fan of luxuries. By that I don't mean that I need a 5 star hotel or anything, but I want a room not shared with strangers and a working bathroom. This means that taking a few holidays (as I have done this year) suits me far better than doing all of my travelling in one go. I love cultural trips, my most recent ones being Venice, Berlin and Barcelona which is great for a gap year but I also love beach holidays. A few weeks tanning in Greece is lovely, but they won't tick the 'growing and experiencing' box that would be important to me on a gap year. These short trips allow me to do a mixture of both.

Another reason why I decided to go straight to uni was money. While my savings would have covered travel, I wanted to save them for emergencies. This was also why I didn't do a year of work first, as I could dip into that account if I needed to. Fortunately, I have had a generous donation from my grandparents, and I have managed to get a small part time job to alongside studying so I haven't needed to do that yet. If all goes well hopefully I'll be able to keep up these savings and eventually use this money to put down a deposit on a house. Either way I wanted to keep my money for a later date so a gap year wasn't the best way to do that.

One more reason why I didn't go on a gap year was my boyfriend. I love travelling with him and I didn't want to go without him. Being able to go on trips with him (and my friends) instead of going alone is the biggest reason why short holidays are more appealing than a year out to me. I also did not want to spend a year apart. Finally and most importantly, I was worried that if I took a year out from education that I'd never go back. I love history and studying it is great but I need the momentum to keep going.

I am in no way saying that my way is the right way. There are plenty of advantages to gap years, and if you want to take one I would encourage that 100%! But it's not for me and now you know why :)