Gap Year 2020

If you Google “college gap year”, you will find plenty of articles and blog posts all about the pros and cons of taking a gap year. Beautiful programs, planned with purpose. But, there’s nothing about what to do when a pandemic hits and life gets turned upside down. Welcome to The Great Gap Year of 2020.

2020 was the most unusual year for a student to finish High School and begin college. A year filled with the most difficult decisions, lack of clarity, and upset – all fueled by a worldwide pandemic. Welcome to the reality that my son, Lucas, lived. And welcome to the reality that I navigated with him as his mom.

Because we have the unique perspective of a pandemic-induced gap year, Lucas and I are collaborating on sharing our experiences. Today’s post is all about my point of view. You can read his point of view HERE.

Uncertainty

March 13, 2020 was the last day of his k-12 education, the pandemic forcing his school to close. His school moved to online education but it was a mess, a total joke. Nobody’s fault, we were all simply NOT PREPARED for a pandemic and sudden massive educational model shifts.

This brought about a lot of uncertainty and questions. Not only about finishing his HS career, but looking forward to his college plans. It was painful to watch his plans slip away as college after college made the decision to not open in the Fall, or move to an online-only model.

His college moved to a hybrid model that would have students living on campus but in single dorm rooms, online classes only, cafeteria food delivered to their doors in brown bags. Basically living in quarantine in dorm rooms, a far cry from what one would want from college.

And with that, his wish for a classic freshman year experience vanished. The college did the best they could at trying to create a salvageable year for students, but it was not an agreeable situation.

This was so tough to acccept!

As chill as we are at my house, it stung hard. Watching Lucas acquiesce to the situation and then figure out how to pivot was difficult.

One might argue that these are champagne problems compared to what others are experiencing in life (massive illness, poverty, lack of water, shelter, etc.) but having your plans and future that you have just spent your entire life to that point preparing for turned completely upside down is a big deal!

Gap Year

It was time to look at how to design a gap year.

When you think of a gap year, things like adventure, travel, study abroad, opportunity, volunteering, personal growth, and purpose come to mind.

There are hundreds of beautiful programs to join – take a look here. In fact, Lucas and I looked at some of them when considering the gap year/go to college choice, but they, too, were effected by the pandemic. These programs give structure and purpose to a gap year, guiding a student through a year that is related to their field of study, giving school credit, work experience, etc. They can be a really beautiful thing.

Here are some stats based on typical gap years:

I wonder if those stats remain true now that we have a year of students that took a pandemic-based gap year?

Since a structured program was out, and we had no real timeframe to work within, (Would the school fully open again in a few months? Next year? Never?) what to do? Get a job, but one that would be easy to leave in a hurry? Start a career track in case schools never open again?

What?

What, what, WHAT?

How do you give purpose and meaning to an unspecified and unknown period of time?

I coached him to continue learning no matter what. Learning and growth can happen everywhere, all the time. So, no matter what he did, he could always work on his own growth and learning about whatever interested him.

While not an exile in the classical sense, this moment in life had elements.

We also encouraged him to live well. If he took a job, do it with integrity. Do it at his best level. There was a lot of opportunity for personal growth even in the most menial of jobs.

Gap Year 2020 Result

In the end, his gap year was filled with ups and downs, three different jobs, frustration, some wasted time, direction/no direction, purpose/no purpose, and TONS AND TONS of personal growth. I’d need an alternate reality to know if it is more or less than what he would have gotten if he had gone straight to college, but I suspect he got excellent life perspective that can only be garnered from experiences and choices like he made. A lot of it made my forehead hurt from furrowing hard, but so it goes as a mom, gap year or not.

Ultimately, he will go to college this Fall. I am absolutely thrilled that he has the opportunity now and that he is grabbing onto it! I think he will go with more gratitude and succeed at a higher level. The weirdest year of his life – Gap Year 2020, as bananas as it was, will have served the purpose of preparing him for his future more than anything else could have.

I feel much more settled, my forehead has smoothed out, and we have a dorm move-in date set!

With that, go forth young man! I’m proud of you for working through this year and finally getting your Freshman year experience. The future is what you will make of it, so go get it!

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