{"id":7122,"date":"2013-11-11T19:28:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/responsive.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents\/?p=7122"},"modified":"2022-06-09T20:02:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T18:02:50","slug":"is-a-gap-year-what-school-leavers-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/education\/careers\/is-a-gap-year-what-school-leavers-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a gap year what school leavers need?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was recently approached by a family member whose daughter is finishing school this year.\u00a0 She thought it would be a good idea for me to give her some career guidance\u2026. Beeeg mistake!\u00a0 Not because I\u2019m not qualified to give such advice, in my infinite wisdom, but because what I had to say was not entirely what she wanted her daughter to hear.<\/p>\n

When I was finishing school, the idea in my head was that no matter what, I had <\/i>to go to university and I had<\/i> to study something immediately.\u00a0 So off I went and studied law. (Yes friends, I am a qualified attorney, surprise, surprise!)\u00a0 And all through my studies and my articles, I absolutely hated it.\u00a0 It just didn\u2019t fit well with me and I found that I didn\u2019t give it my all as I was unhappy doing it.\u00a0 I have many friends that I studied with that are thriving and making a huge success of themselves but for me, it was a completely wrong choice.\u00a0 There are many people that I meet that still suggest that I start practicing again when all my kids are school-going, somehow it\u2019s just not my thing.<\/p>\n

So what is my thing?\u00a0 I actually still don\u2019t know.\u00a0 There are many things I enjoy doing, but making a career out of eating chocolate unfortunately doesn\u2019t seem viable!\u00a0\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s not a waste having studied something and not be practicing it as I always have the possibility of returning to it, if the need ever arises.\u00a0 What I do know is that as I finished school, there wasn\u2019t anything that I particularly would have liked to pursue.\u00a0 It would be great if all of us were like the X Factor contestants that just knew since they were 5 that they were born to be singers (some of whom I seriously beg to differ with) but that\u2019s not the reality.<\/p>\n

So my advice to her was to take a gap year. Her mom reacted with, \u201cNo ways!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a waste of a year!\u201d\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 The gap year would not be to sit around the house sponging off her parents but to take some time doing work in different fields to find out what what she feels fulfilled doing, \u00a0what makes her wake up each morning not with dread but with a sense of excitement.<\/p>\n

I know many people who go to a job everyday simply because they have responsibilities and they need to bring home the bacon (or macon, in our case).\u00a0 My better half for example would much rather be spending his days making fishing documentaries but how would we make ends meet if he did this? I\u2019ve been able to make the change to something I love. I\u2019ve becoming a website administrator (sounds important right?!) at the same time as being a full-time mum, so it is possible.\u00a0 I do \u00a0however, feel a pinch of guilt for spending so many years doing something I hated.<\/p>\n

So at the end of our conversation, we all agreed that my \u2018advice\u2019 came through experience and that it may be a good idea to take a year off, to explore a world where the possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n

This article was originally written for Jozikids by Fatima Kazee in 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n

Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n