A gap year is a year in which children take a year off between high school and college.
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With the continued spread of coronavirus reversal plans across the country – most recently on university campuses, where many schools have announced that they will pursue an entirely digital curriculum in 2020-21 – many aspiring freshmen are considering the idea of take a sabbatical year.
The sabbaticals, when you take a break between high school and university, are quite common in England, where I originally come from. I knew early enough that I wanted to get one, and my mom supported me a lot, which I am very grateful for, because it was a really beneficial and pleasant experience. So with so many freshmen on the way potentially considering one of their own, I wanted to share some things I learned along the way that could influence your decision to make one, or maybe help inform any advice you give to a loved one considering a person himself.
1. Use it as an opportunity to save money
Of course, some wealthy children take a gap year, travel and blow through a lot of their parents’ money in the process. More power for them, but personally, I think a sabbatical is more rewarding when you have a bustle that gives you some dough. I lived at home during my gap year and fell during the week, whenever I wasn’t playing in tournaments. My colleague and fellow gap year, Dylan Dethier, wrote about skiing on the side to help fund his trip to America.
Look, all the money you earn during your gap year won’t be enough to retire, but if you’re smart, it will certainly be enough to come in handy when you need it. You could put it aside for college or, if nothing else, you could use it to have a fun experience for yourself, which brings me to my next point …
2. Explore new places
I had a very golf-focused sabbatical year, which is an elegant way to say that I spent a lot of time in the car, traveling to and from tournaments. They weren’t huge journeys; most of the tournaments were 36 holes, so most of my trips were a night or two somewhere within about eight hours of Hilton Head Island where I was living at the time. I’d leave the day before the tournament, try to get to the pitch in time for a round of rehearsals that evening, and usually travel after my final round.
Sometimes it was boring – I got to know I-95 really well, with the countless trips I made from South Carolina to Florida – but when you just got out of high school and travel alone, only for hours a car , there is a twofold sense of adventure and responsibility. You start thinking about things, which is mostly good, and you learn to get by.
Also, in my case, it helped me to see some areas of the country where I had never been before or since. And again, these weren’t huge trips. In Alabama for a couple of days, or up to Tennessee for a two day tournament. But regardless, it’s a good feeling, knowing a small fragment of the country where you would never have had reason to go before.
3. There will be times when you feel left out
This struck me in the winter of my gap year. All my friends had gone to college, doing all the things that college kids do and coming back with stories about all this, then they went away again. It will be a little terrifying at first – at least for me – and the truth is that you probably won’t make a lot of new friends during your gap year. It will be quite evident when all your old friends are in college, meeting new people. Feeling a little excluded is normal, so don’t dwell on it. Use it as an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone.
4. Take your golf seriously
If you are a golfer who is taking a gap year, even if you are working a bit, you will probably never have so much time to work on your game for the rest of your life, so take it seriously. Many young people could spend a sabbatical year working on their game in hopes of improving their chances of getting a collage scholarship. So if that’s your plan, do it right. Find a trainer and stretch your swing; go to the gym and gain some speed; play as many holes a day as you can and learn to score. You have the potential to make some important improvements that will pay dividends for years. Just because you have a year off doesn’t mean it’s time to relax.
5. Compete on a higher level
A sabbatical year is your opportunity to get out of your comfort zone. When it comes to golf, that means pushing yourself. I would suggest participating in some mini-tours and Monday qualifying as an amateur. Find out what it means to compete against the boys for a paycheck and see how level you are compared to them. Spending a day or two playing a mini-tour can be an eye-opening experience. While it’s not a good thing, it will be invaluable and may even show the kind of ambition that college golf coaches seek.
6. Think about what you find interesting
In retrospect, perhaps the biggest advantage of my gap year is that it gave me time to think. High school can be a crazy time, and so many of my friends got out of it and went straight to college without thinking too much about it. When they took a breath and started thinking about what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives, two years had already passed.
Sure, there’s always the potential to change your mind later and find out something new, but use your gap year to ask yourself what you find interesting and may wish to pursue. Do some self-discovery, this way you can hit the ground by running when you go to school.
7. Stay productive
Ultimately, the best advice I can give, whether you are a golfer or not, is to stay productive. Get to know yourself, save some money, work on your game, see new places, push yourself. If you are looking to be recruited by college coaches, be proactive and update him on your progress.
Ultimately, if you are a child who wants to take a gap year or the parent of one who considers it, remember the golden rule: a gap year is only as good as you do, and it is an opportunity that presents itself only once .
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