Thread by @thetimes

Whether you didn’t get the grades you wanted or still feel unsure about university, a gap year can be a great opportunity to reflect on your options and discover new opportunities

Here, Times journalists reflect on the value of their own experiences
thetimes.co.uk/article/times-…

While most of her friends were off enjoying Freshers Week, Rebecca Harty's life revolved around customer service

On the weekends she worked in a clothes shop and dished out healthcare advice in the local pharmacy

By night she served pints in the village pub

All of the work allowed her to afford an around-the-world ticket, which took her everywhere from motorbiking along Vietnam’s coast to jumping out of a plane in New Zealand slightly tipsy after originally being told that the endeavour had been called off

By the time it was her own turn for Freshers Week, she was going into it with friends and memories to last a lifetime, as well as excellent customer service skills

Emma Yeomans spent the first 12 weeks of her gap year at a journalism college in Brighton, making the most of a government-funded chance to take a diploma in journalism for free

This led to a week’s work experience at her local paper, The Argus – but this week soon turned into two, then three, then a 10-month internship

Sitting in a badly-lit office on the outskirts of Brighton, she’d occasionally receive a picture from other gap year friends of beaches in Thailand

Perched in front of a screen with her Asda meal deal, she said she sometimes felt a pang of jealousy

But she says she doesn’t regret it for a second:

Tom Knowles took a six-month trip around India with two school friends

But when his sight started to drain away in the toilets of a sleeper train after hours of dehydration and diarrhea, he began to question his gap year choices

Thankfully, after some rest, his world reappeared and a hospital stop-off in the middle of the night, followed by a drip, set him right. He was back on the railway the very next day

Despite what happened, he says he’ll never rue that night:

“Travelling like this for months on end teaches you to be independent, to strike up a conversation with anyone, and even how to handle something as bizarre as temporary blindness”
thetimes.co.uk/article/times-…

Tempted by it all? Here’s how to plan a gap year, even amidst the tumult of Covid and travel restrictions
thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to…