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Jake Bradley

Amy Flick

ENGLCMP-200

12/10/19

The Path Less Taken

It was probably destine to be when my mom first told me when I was 13 years old that I

should probably not make my email bradleyjb22@gmail.com, “Because who knows if you are

going to finish college then”. So instead I made the email bradleyjb18@gmail.com because it

seemed expected that I would be graduating high school on time. Looking back on it, it seems

predetermined that I would have taken a gap year before beginning college. But it was not what I

perceived would be what happened for me. I thought my path was, as it is for most people, that I

would go to college like the rest of my grade. It wasn’t a decision that was made overnight it was

deliberated over and over until the decision became apparent to me.

First you need to understand where we are in terms of my life. We are entering senior

year of high school. The former summer had consisted of countless arguments and debates to

start college applications and to get essays written. But for me that was not high on my list of

priorities. For me I was so lost in a dark world that I didn’t even find the enjoyment in what

could be the planning of my future. Why would someone not find excitement in looking for their

“dream school” the place that they would find forever friends and continue their education for

the next four years. What troubled me was a single word, “school”. I could not imagine willingly

looking to go sit in class for another four years given that the fact that I just finished the most

complicated and difficult period of my life, High School.

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As the year began, I was pushed to get a few applications out early so that I wouldn’t be

stuck cramming before the deadline. I only knew one school that I was defiantly going to apply

to. It was the University of Pittsburgh. Lucky for me the application for it was just three short

questions. That didn’t mean that the application was done quick, it still took me a good three

weeks before the application was ready to be submitted. I submitted it end of September, early

October and had heard back the 28th of October. I had gotten in. For me senior year was done. I

had checked out and would coast for the rest of the year.

My plan all throughout the year was to attend the University of Pittsburgh as a member of

the Class of 2022. I went through the whole year with the plan. I graduated with the plan. I even

spent the whole summer with that plan. I had planned out everything. But what I had planned

was not what I needed. What I needed was to a break. I had so much going on in my life that was

affecting me in other areas that I needed to take time and address those issues. It was the back

and forth deliberation of will I be able to succeed if I go to school next year or would I be back

home before the first snow even hit Pittsburg. And as I looked at more and more of the evidence

in front of me, I realized it would be the latter of the two. This was something that I had been

keeping in the back of my mind for some time, but it was only just becoming apparent to me that

it was the right decision.

The next problem that arose for me was that I didn’t know what to do with that decision.

My school had never brought up the idea of taking a Gap Year and in fact I would not be

surprised if they were even against it. I went to a well-regarded private high school that prided

themselves on having 100 percent of their students going to college. So now that I was thinking

about taking this year all I could think about was how I was an outsider and didn’t belong. This

was the last thing I needed to be thinking at this point in my life. What I need was to be able to
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find something that I could do to keep me engaged and occupied while I was making sure that I

was getting better. The next phase was to find that certain experience that would motivate me

and start getting me in the right direction.

When it came time for all my friends to head off to school everything became much

harder as I was now also alone. The first few months consisted of the majority of time spent in

my room doing nothing that was going to help move me forward. I had started going to therapy

to try and figure all of this out, but it was only working so much for me. I still had not bought

into the whole idea of using the year to do something different or to actually benefit from the

year. It took until around Thanksgiving of that year for me to start moving in the right direction.

One of my close family friends had brought up a possibility for me to work at the non-profit

where she was the head of development. As this was the first real job option that I received, I

was pressured a little by my parents to get a resume ready and to apply for it. The job was to help

them manage their move from a 17,000 square foot building to a new space with 25,000 square

feet. It was going to be a lot of work, but I decided I would give it a try.

I applied and I got the job. The position could not have been better. I instantly became an

active member of the team and my ideas were taken with open arms. I was finally starting to

climb back to where I knew I could be. The part time position soon became full time and I was

finally an active member of something instead of the kid who was sitting in his bedroom alone a

few months prior. I kept this job all the way until it was time for me to head to school and what I

took from my time working at Cradles to Crayons is that I had the potential to do great things

even though the path I took my not be traditional. I possessed something that the majority of

people my age didn’t have. I was faced with adversity but fought back to make the most out of

the time I decided to take off. And when I left my job the most rewarding part was that when I
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left, I was hit with a wave of “what will we do without Jacob”, “you know we are gonna be

calling you for help”. What this demonstrated to me was the I had made an impact and the work

that I had done was going to end up helping people.

As I look back on the job experience there was a lot of tasks and jobs that I did for the

company. But what the company did for me was more than they knew. They lifted me out a

place I never thought I’d be able to escape, and they taught me way more than I would’ve in that

first year of school. I finally came to the realization that the decision I made was the right

decision for me, even if it was not the most common decision among my peers. What I hope I

can take away from this and pass on to other people is that it is ok to take the path less traveled

and it is perfectly ok for a person not to follow the ladder of life exactly. You can skip a few

steps or go around but, in the end, you will always reach the top.

This decision for me was one that took a lot of time and deliberation between myself and

my parents. There are many reasons that would make person decide to take a gap year. There are

three that were necessary to highlight in order to show what made this decision so complex for

me. They are, the sense of gained maturity, the benefit of taking a year between school, and the

number of potential experiences that can be gain from such an influential time. A gap year is not

advertised like a college is. So I had a really hard time coming to terms with the idea of the gap

year, I needed to do research.

It has been studied that it beneficial for students to continue their education past the

required four years of high school, and to gain some sort of secondary schooling before entering

the “real world”. This no longer needs to be done in the traditional way of doing things. We are

now seeing a new movement towards the idea of the Gap Year and are slowly chipping away at

the stigma behind them. Gap Years have long been looked at as a period in time for troubled
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students or people who are not ready to go to school to gather themselves. This is only part of the

picture. Now it is being regarded as a decision made by the students who are really ready to

engage in their future and have a better idea of themselves before entering the next chapter of

life. The developments in these programs have begun to catch the attention of people in all levels

of education including a former president of Harvard. Lawrence Summers has made it known

that if for him, the idea student body at Harvard would have taken a year prior to enrolling and

spent it doing volunteer work or learning aboard. What Dr. Summers is attaining to is the

benefits one year in a new environment can have. It allows the students to grow in a way that a

year at one of the most prestigious schools cannot. Certain things cannot be taught through

school but only through experiences. The gap year allows students to cater a year to what they

want experience and not what fills up a gen-ed requirement.

The time after the last bell rings and before that first step is taken on University grounds

is up for taking. It’s what is done with this time that determines the path that is taken. Every gap

year is different depending on the person. It is a time for the individual to cater an entire

experience to what they want to explore. There are many different pre-organized programs for

students to partake in if they choose. These programs can often times be quite expensive which is

why some may think that gap years are only for those who can afford it. This is far from the case.

Though there are some trips that explore sea for 90 days and are catered to be this all-in

experience, a gap year can be used for whatever is needed. Over the past few years as the gap

year has begun to become more mainstreamed there has been an increase in research in what a

gap year can give to people. A study done by the Princeton Review in 2003 surveyed students

from all over to see about their experience with gap years. The study showed that there was not

as many American students that took a gap year as there were with people from other countries.
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This should not be surprising as other countries have adopted the gap year and actually promote

it unlike the United States. Even though the study only had a small representative of US Students

the information received was that the people who did take a year were getting better grades and

job than those who did not take a gap year. One thing that was received was that the experiences

that were gained in such a short period of time had a huge lasting impact on the person. These

experiences would be used to create a solid foundation that gives the individual a head start in

their careers.

Another key reason that students take the Gap Year is for creating a gap between school.

After completing close to 13 years of school some people just need a break. This is becoming a

more common reason for students to take the year in between. The year off should not be spent

only taking a break but should be used to restart the fire inside to find that joy to learn the next

phase of life. For some going right into college can often end them back home before the first

semester has even come to a close. This can be seen for some as the worst-case scenario. The

money has already been spent on the school, but the mental strain and the workload became too

overwhelming to succeed. And that is perfectly ok. What gets forgotten is that even if the first

few years of that next chapter are a little shaky it does not mean that the future holds the same. A

Gap Year can come at any time. For most it is perceived to come right after high school and

before college begins. What is so exciting about a Gap Year is that it does not have to be done in

a set-in stone type of way. It is totally customizable to what the person who’s taking the time

may need. Gap Years have been looked at for too long as a weakness or privilege. It is now time

that the narrative is changed and people begin to realize that those who take the Gap Year may

be one year behind in school but are many years ahead in life.
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Maturity

Gap between school

Experiences

Worked Cited:

Rubin, Marianne. “Gap Year: Transition from High School to College. Time off or Time
on?” Hispania, vol. 91, no. 1, 2008, pp. 225–226. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20063662.

Gap Year, Association . “Gap Year Data & Benefits.” Gapyearassociation.org, 2017,
www.gapyearassociation.org/data-benefits.php.

Rosenberg, David. “1 In 5 College Students Have Anxiety or Depression. Here's Why.” The
Conversation, 7 Oct. 2019, theconversation.com/1-in-5-college-students-have-anxiety-or-
depression-heres-why-90440.

Lieber, Ron. “How Taking a Gap Year Can Shape Your Life.” The New York Times, The New
York Times, 19 Oct. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/your-money/reflections-on-a-
gap-year-decades-after-taking-one.html.

O'Shea, Joesph. Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs.
John Hopkins Univ. Pr., 2014.
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