A "gap year" before college...

I really liked reading this opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. I also think it's kind of cool that this dad (Steve Yoder) has his kids, Isaac and Levi, pitch in on this column -- it gives another perspective that I really like.

I really wanted to take a "gap year" between high school and college. I had it all planned out. I was going to graduate from high school and then head off to a country in Central America (my first pick was Mexico) to be an American Field Service student. We had had lots of AFS students at my high school and I had been planning on being in the program since I was a sophomore. I wasn't even really thinking about college during my junior year when the rest of my friends were visiting schools across the country. As far as I was concerned I was going to live with a Mexican family and study at a Mexican high school and take a cultural year before hitting the books.

My senior year it all came crashing down.

The AFS age rules changed and I was too old to study abroad anywhere but Switzerland. I had spent 4 years studying Spanish and I wasn't content to spend a year learning French or German. I wanted to perfect my spanish! I cried a lot. I pleaded with AFS to make an exception for me. Nothing worked. I was devastated. My year of culture wasn't going to happen. Without an alternate plan I decided I'd have to head off to college after all.

I attended Northeastern University in Boston for my freshman year. I loved that school and I loved the city but it was a hard year for me. I knew a lot of people but I only had one really close friend. I was used to having tons of close friends and I was lonely a lot of the time. I was also financially strapped. Northeastern is a private school and it was expensive. It's also a 5-year school with a year planned in for internships. After my first year I decided to transfer back to the University of Maine in my hometown. It was a hard decision. I ended up becoming depressed and spent a sad semester in Maine.

But when live gives you lemons you make lemonade. I applied for an National Student Exchange (which is just like studying abroad except it's for schools in the U.S.) and chose a school in Baltimore, Towson University, to attend. It was the only school I was interested in and they had a great film/television program. I was also accepted into the Disney College Program and after one semester at UMaine, I packed my bags for a semester of learning and working in Orlando, Florida. That experience changed my perspective and I had a marvelous time. I consider that semester to be a semester off -- even though I did earn 3 college credits.

I had decided that If I wasn't accepted to Towson thorough the student exchange I was going to join the Peace Corps. UMaine wasn't for me. I longed for adventure. But I was accepted to Towson and I enrolled there for a year, paying my in-state tuition to UMaine.

I embraced Towson and ended up transferring there after my year was up. I ended up graduating from there in the winter of 2000.

I didn't have your normal college experience, and I wonder if I had taken that year after high school to study in another country if I would have followed the same path. Probably not. I wonder if I would have studied the same thing in college had I spent a year in Mexico. I have no idea. Perhaps I would have been more interested in spanish, education, or humanitarian work. Perhaps I wouldn't have gone to college at all -- but I find that unlikely. I really love learning.

When one door closes another door opens. It's cheesy but it's true I think. When I couldn't go to Mexico I did other things, not letting unhappiness stand in my way. I have always been one to take opportunities that present themselves to me. That's how I got my job working at Camden Yards for the Orioles in production. That's how I ended up in Baltimore in the first place. That's how I got my first real job at a post-production house in Boston. That's how I got into NYU for grad school and ended up working for publications like PRWeek, Inc. Magazine, and The Star-Ledger. That's also how I got the job I'm at now.

I learned from my AFS experience of NOT being able to study abroad that the worst someone can say is "no" and that the only person who can make me happy is me. My grandmother once told me that if you don't get what you like, like what you get. I prefer to keep trying to get what I like until I'm happy.

So should students take a year off before heading to college? I think it is a great opportunity, especially for students who aren't really sure what they want to study. Even taking a semester off or a year off in college, like my sister did to hike the Appalachian Trail, is a great idea. You are only young once. Time is too precious to waste floating through your own life without direction. Gain a perspective, make goals, and reach them...no matter what they are.