What Is A Gap Year?

A gap year is typically a one-year break before or after university/ college, where a student chooses to engage in developmental activities outside of the educational system. This can include internships, jobs, travels, hobbies, and learning of all sorts.

So... Why do people take gap years?

I chose to take a gap year due to 3 main reasons:

1. Purpose

I hoped to enter college with a little more clarity on why I am there, and not because it’s the next thing I'm supposed to tick off on the life checklist.

Amidst the grind of A Levels, many of my friends were busy submitting their applications for university. At a point in time, I felt pressured to submit applications too. But along the way, I asked myself why. Why do I want to go to University next year? 

I realised I had no answer. While yes, I love learning. But do I know what I want to study? Is school the only way for me to learn? Do I know what I want to do with my degree? Most importantly, am I making this choice for myself, or am I doing what I’m supposed to do?

I knew deep down that if I were to return to school, I would once again sign up for all the activities, work hard, and try my best in everything. But what was I doing that for? It was no longer as simple as being a good student. Life was much more than being a student. In 2013 when my mum passed away, the urgency to make the most of my life hit me. And so, I decided to seek out my own standard of good. 

2. Standard of Good

All along I’ve been following society’s standard of good. Especially in Singapore, it is very easy to ride along with the culture of striving. 

In primary, secondary and junior college (grades 1-12), I strove hard in my academics and school programmes. I took part in a myriad of sports and service activities. While all these activities made me fulfilled - I also wondered, what is beyond these school walls? 

In Grade 9, I had the chance to partake in Nanyang Girls’ High School’s Community Leadership Programme. A group of teachers, who continue to inspire me to this day, dedicated hours and days to mentor us and ask us difficult questions. They intentionally crafted a leadership model that nurtured in us the importance of acting on purpose and grounding ourselves in our community.

In the same year, I embarked on a 6 day 5 night kayaking expedition in the Sibu Islands, Malaysia. This trip planted a seed in me. My teacher mentors asked me, “What will you do with the opportunities you have been given?” 

Throughout the year, I carried this question with me. As I spent time with special needs children, the elderly and my community, I realised that I possessed countless unearned privileges. Why do I get the chance to experience all this, while others might not? I struggled with this question, and delved deep into the construct of privilege.

Towards the end of the year, I embarked on an 18-day backpacking trip in Chong Qing, Ningxia and Chengdu, China. Away from the hustle of mugging for exams, our 16-man team scaled Mount Emei and Mount Qingcheng, engaged in student exchanges and dived into 12am discussions about Taoism, Islam, Buddhism, our aging population, and simplicity. 18 days without wifi threw me into the present. 

Every moment was spent observing the hurried feet, listening to the sighing of the trees and peeping into one another’s minds. I felt like I was transported into another body, where I could be fully present, and the worries back home melted away. Experiences like these made me fall in love with travelling. As I immersed myself in another culture, I felt refreshed and liberated. As I watched the Chinese elderly painting calligraphy at the park, the monks engaging in their practice, the HUGE monkey beside me, something inside me was awakened. 

In Grade 10, I got the chance to embark on a 21-day Service Learning Project in Cambodia. In Phnom Penh, Sangtuk and Mondulkiri, we conducted social inquiry interviews with the locals and built toilets and chicken coops with them. Living in the mountains and the villages away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, allowed me to reconnect with myself. As I began to understand the Bunong culture and the locals’ way of life - I began to question my way of life and what I placed value in. I questioned my interpretive lens, a narrow one in trillions.

An accumulation of these experiences gradually shifted my perceptions of a meaningful life. I grew an unquenchable thirst for answers. The more I asked, the more questions I had. 

Now that I had completed 12 years of fixed education, I hoped to figure out what good means to me, with the path ahead a blank slate.

‍What does it mean to make a life, not a living?

3. Wonder

I am in awe of the world and the abundance of things to see, do, and be. I hope to contribute my energy to the community, and harvest experience from all aspects of life.

While an education system provides me with the tools and resources to learn about life and our world, I desired a challenge. I wanted to learn with greater autonomy in all aspects. There’s nothing I need to do, but rather, what do I want to do? 

With this space to improvise and craft my path for myself, I threw myself into everything I'm interested in. I took on 7 jobs, from a Covid-19 Task Force, to teaching in a secondary school and a special needs school. I did a remote internship with a Cinema Chain in the United Arab Emirates, and 2 legal internships (one fiscal law research focused, while the other with a law firm). My final internship was with a tech start-up, with an international team from 6 countries. Along the way, I learned the piano and guitar, as well as Spanish, dance, yoga, pilates and Python.

While I picked up these interpersonal and technical skills, my most valuable learning was insight into the world, and myself - my flaws and strengths.