"Many young people choose to take a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel. The experience of non-academic life this offers benefits the individual when they return to education.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?"

Nowadays, more and more people have the opportunity to go to university. Although this is a big step forward for our society, sometimes the decision of "what to do next" can lead high school graduates to anxiety caused by the social pressure of following the right path. A solution some people find is to take a gap year in order to travel, work, or understand what they really want to do. In this essay I will start from my own experiences to give my personal opinion on this matter.

I am a university student and I have never taken a break from studying. For this reason, when I think about my studies, I often find myself wondering whether I am doing the right choice or not.

I have always had the dream to visit many countries as a solo traveller or with a travel buddy. However, I have never had the opportunity to do it, first because of my university exams and then because no one was willing to share this experience with me. I am currently spending my days thinking about how to spend a few weeks abroad, and how to make it coincide with my duties. I believe it will be more difficult to do so once my education will be completed, because I will have to enter in the job market as soon as possible, and I know I would regret this in the future.

Regarding the work experience, during my first year of university I have started to work during weekends in order to earn some money. I believe this choice helped me becoming more responsible regarding my time management and my personal finance. However, I was working alongside my studies, thus I did not have the opportunity to focus entirely on a single activity (work) with the purpose of using the benefits gained from that experience on my academic career.

In conclusion, I believe it is important for students to take a year out, especially if they are not sure of what to do yet in their future. Personally, I would have appreciated to spend an entire year doing my own experiences in order to grow as a person and become more responsible.