The scariest thing I did after high school wasn’t going to college. It was turning down my admission offer, and taking a gap year. I didn’t know at the time that it was called a gap year. But I was exhausted from the competitive pressure cooker experience that was my public high school, and unhappy to resume a new version of it at Cal. So I decided to not go. My parents were understandably shocked. They didn’t know why I was making this decision, and they didn’t know what to say when their friends asked them where I was going in the Fall. “I’m taking a year off,” I told everyone. “I need a break.” That break changed my life and helped build me into the person I am today. Illustration of a student planning on taking a gap year. Hand-drawn illustration for editorial use. How Taking a Gap Year Helped Me Find What Was Next After deciding to not head off to Cal in the Fall, I felt both relieved and terrified. I didn’t have a plan before starting my gap year. I also didn’t defer my admission because I knew I wouldn’t want to go later. I started my gap year with virtually no plan. The plan formed quickly though. It turned out that the year I graduated from high school was a US Census year. The Census, which took place every ten years, was a national effort to count everyone in the United States. It was an enormous undertaking, and required a veritable army of temporary staff in every zip code in America. When I stopped by to visit with her after graduation, my high school guidance counselor told me that a recruiter had come by asking if any recent grads might want to work for the Census, as a recruiter for door-to-door temps. She said she would recommend me, and I jumped at the opportunity. Getting a real full-time job was exhilarating. I took the Basic Skills Test and scored 100%, then got some basic training on how to do the job. I got assigned to a territory in San Jose, CA, where my job was to canvass the neighborhood asking if people would be ok with my placing a US Census hiring sign in their shop windows. At the same time, I was to secure and schedule sites to administer the Basic Skills Test to the candidates that would come through after seeing my posted flyers. Finally, I would proctor and grade the test sittings, and turn in the results, along with any new hire paperwork, to the field office I belonged to. It turned out that I was great at this job. My supervisor praised me and I proudly received my paychecks from the U.S. Treasury. I then wanted to know how I could do more, so I looked at the job descriptions for my supervisor and others at his level. The first thing I noticed was a Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent from an accredited institution. And that is the experience that led me to decide to reapply to college. Only this time, I would apply to the places I wanted to go to, and the programs that interested me. I had proven to myself that I could do a job well in the adult world. Now I wanted to level up, and a college degree was what I needed to do so. For me, that was the beauty of a gap year – the opportunity to have adult responsibilities and determine what to want next. My real work experience was so different from school, where everything I did was assigned to me, and even elective classes were de rigueur. I chose to work for the U.S. Census Bureau, and the work was necessary and important. Going to work every day was meaningful to me because everything I did was in service of the broader effort to count everyone. I knew that many decisions on resource allocation relied on Census data and I worked hard to do my small part of the massive national project very very well. Most years are not Census years. But the enriching experience I had could have resulted from many different paths. I could have volunteered at a nature preserve in Costa Rica, learning about the life of sea turtles and training to become a coffee roaster. I could have signed up for a long term missions trip with my church, serving children in rural Vietnam as they learned about Christianity in English-first vacation bible school. If I hadn’t joined the Census, there was an almost endless range of other adult experiences I could have had. Practically all of which would have helped me see the good I could do in the world, while affirming what skills and ethics I already had. Taking a gap year is a wonderful option for anyone who is ready to do so. We at Rustic Pathways would love to explore with you and your child whether that option is the right one for your child too.