Taking A Leap: Can A Gap Year Spark Personal Growth?

From experience, I've only had one unintended gap year after my secondary school final exam. I'm only just thinking about it now that it was a gap year I had and definitely wasn't a situation of procastination but life just happened that way and I took advantage of it to get busy in other aspects of life like finding something I love to do.

I've seen people take a leap from work or school. Some turn out well and some didn't but one thing was clear, they thought they needed that break and took it when they got the chance or provided the chance to themselves. There are like a thousand reasons for anyone to take a break from work or school, great and not cool reasons.

When the job is exhausting in any way, especially mentally? I think that's a good excuse to take a step back and plan to take a leap. Like it happens in my country, when you keep failing to get admitted into a university? It's not a time to think you're a big failure, it's a time to step back and plan for a leap that should be aimed to solve it.

A gap year shouldn't be an excuse to run away from what should be done. Taking a leave when you think you can't own up to your responsibilities anymore. That's rare but people do it and most of the time, it doesn't end well. There should be a limit to the reasons given for a gap year and there should be a limit to how long.

I know a case of someone who decided to take a break from work and her hunt for an online academic pursuit because she thought she was exhausted. Sadly, she didn't have much money on her to go for a vacation and she decided to spend her days indoors. It wasn't even up to a year before she started to seem crazy and depressed.

A gap year should be aimed at improving whoever is taking it... Personal growth. I believe taking a rest from what one does everyday or regularly is a good move to figure out a next big step and see if what they've been doing is really what they want to continue to do. Life is too short to feel stuck in one side of it for a too long time.

Indeed, there's a thin line between growth and procastination when someone requests or goes for a gap year. Without clearly stating reasons for the gap year, anyone could think it's just a way for running away from work or doing something now. I believe in taking time to think the next big step but I do not believe in taking too much time too.

There is no point stucking up to what is killing us slowly and there is always the personal choices to make. At the moment, I think I'm taking a gap year with my mind roaming for where to take the leap that I believe will change everything. I'm not just lazying about while I let my mind roam, I get busy trying to improve myself and be even better.