A Year on Pause: My Decision to Take a Gap Year
By: Sophia Fogarty
Beyond the annual college stress that high school seniors encounter each spring, the pandemic forced seniors to grapple with a new question, will there be “college” next year? With so much uncertainty, we had to decide if we were willing to enroll in the fall semester without knowing what the fall would look like or put our expectations and dreams of college aside for a year and take a gap year.
My father had been an early adopter to worrying about COVID-19, stocking up our house with multiple Cosco trips in late February. Like him, I began to worry about my freshman fall before many of my peers. When I started telling my friends in April and May that I was concerned about going to school in the fall, they looked at me like I was crazy, but that look was nothing compared to the reaction I got when I mentioned the idea of taking a gap year. To take a gap year would completely uproot everything we had worked for, making the concept feel foreign. My friends and I were desperate to live away from our family, meet new people, and leave high school behind. Living under strict lockdown, it seemed impossible to imagine what we could do during a gap year. Would our schools allow students to come back to campus? If not, would we be better off having the structure and distraction of online school than being home with nothing to do? Would our universities or parents let us take a gap years?
At this stage, my friends and I were not ready to grapple with the idea of delaying the start of college. The blood, sweat, and tears of the college application process were still fresh, and some of my friends had yet to finish it. For us, high school was about getting to college. College was the light at the end of the tunnel, and that light was dimming. Ultimately, I, too, was not ready to let go of my plan, deciding to trust in my university’s reactivation plan for the fall.
By August, my school had announced that all students would return to campus, but I remained skeptical that this was the right decision. As a recruited athlete, I anxiously awaited the Ivy Leagues’ decision for sports. When they canceled my sailing season and announced that we would not have practice, I was devastated. More than that, I was scared. As humans entering a new environment, we instinctively look for community, and I worried that the strict social restrictions on campus would prevent me from finding a community. With so much fear and unknown, there was one thing I was sure of; I did not want to go to college.
The day before my rescheduled graduation, I applied for a gap year. I did not know what this year would look like, but that did not matter. I just knew I did not want to go to college, or at least not like this. This fall was bitterly uneventful as I continued working at my summer job and lived at home with my family. However, I am okay with that. I see this gap year as a pause. This year is uneventful so that next year can be. I knew that it would not be the typical gap year full of travel and adventure, but as I had hoped, it has been full of self-growth and learning.
It is not the glamorous gap year that I used to imagine, but I have not looked back since deciding to take it. For most of my friends, a gap year was not the right option. I am fortunate to have a passion, sailing, that can help fill my year. This year is me paying it forward; my gap year is me pressing pause on the college experience I always planned for so that when I press play again, it can be the college experience I want.
Thanks for sharing my story!
Yes! You are inspiring! Thank you for sharing 🙂