Hi everybody!

I am planning on taking a gap year as of october... yes, I will be stopping university, it's driving me completly nuts! :faint:

I think I will be travelling, new zealand, australia, sth america... and working as well to have some money! i have such itchy feet, wanting to move and change!

I was wondering if many ADD take gap years...


have you taken one??? what did you choose to do during that year???

any experiences to share??

didine :)

Hi Didine! not a whole year, but a semester - I hadn't actually intended to do it, but I was doing an internship in Germany (Augsburg) for the summer, and when august rolled around I decided just to stay instead of going back to the US. so total I was in Germany for 7 months, and out of school for a little more than 8 months (working). All my friends were surprised when i decided to stay, but it was THE *BEST* thing I've ever decided to do in my whole life. I'd been diagnosed with ADD the year before, and hadn't really accepted it fully, was drowning under schoolwork and tests, depressed, etc.....

then while i was in germany everything slowed down (MOSTLY becuase i wasn't studying, but also becuase it's another culture and exciting and everything) it took me a couple of months to get "un-depressed" and really start to turn stuff around, (and i didn't even realize how much i was changing at the time) but I did, and when I finally went back to school in January (this year) I was more ready than i've ever been in my life. I was SUPER motivated, happy, and had basically pulled my life out of a gutter. Of course, by the time the semester was over (April) I was beat down again, but it was the best semester i've ever had.

yeah it puts you back a little bit, but taking time off can be REALLY good. I think it's a great idea to travel - the most important thing is to get away from your old life so that you can focus on changing and renewing yourself. I didn't realize how badly i needed that until After I looked back.

New Zealand and Australia! sounds great - i'm sure you won't regret it at all - will you take me with you? ;)

Oh I forgot to say that I think it's really smart to work while you travel - obviously becuase of the money, but also, (more importantly) so you can immerse yourself into the culture. Just make sure you get all the visas or anything else you might need before you go (if it's possible...)

What I did was an internship placement program - they are great if you want to do somthing in your field, (always good!) but you can also find a job yourself, my university even has a "program" which basically allows you to get a working permit before you have a job (normally impossible if you're a foreigner) that way you can just go to the country and start looking once you're there. That's the best way to go if you want to work a job at a resteraunt or somthing like that.

I am about to embark on a gap year myself; I just graduated with a BA Honours in History, and I'm aiming to go into an Education program next, to become a high-school teacher.

And I'm fried. I need the year off, just to let my brain reset.

It's not the first I've taken either. My early university career was an example of exactly how not to do well at school, including failing out my first year, but a couple years off spattered in there gave me a chance to figure out what I actually wanted to do.

But, after 3 years straight, I need a break. If you're planning to travel, even better; I'm planning to get a job to try and pay off some bills, and hopefully give me reason to want to go back to school.

How did you finally find out what you wanted to do Alex? I mean, what did you do in your break after failing your first year??? Did something just go "tilt" and you knew what you wanted to do from then on?

I'm dropping out of university, because I've been in a school environnement way too long (14 years - from 6 to 20) an I need a break plus I took a subject at random (but that still interested me), not really knowing what to do next...

didine, I think figuring out what you *really* want to do is a difficult topic... but taking a year off will really help you, no matter WHAT you do, as long as you're not just sitting around at home doing what you've always done before.


The key is change - getting away (especially travelling, but could be just moving to another house and doing something a little different) will hlep you discover who you are and who you want to be.

Some ideas for what to do in your year off:
volunteering with an organization like the peace corps (I think that's 2 years though and you have to apply early)
travelling
working (around home or far away... I think far away is better personally...)


something else which will really help is to get away from the PEOPLE you know. I know that's tough, especially since on them... but the people you're around affect more about you than any other aspect of your environment. So if you meet NEW people then that will change a lot of your perspectives... or add to your old ones... that can help TONS in figuring yourself out. i know that from personal experience.

I think it's great that you are thinking about doing this and that you want to examine yourself - I would also recommend writing alot in a diary or on the forums, becuase writing helps you really discover yourself too. I don't really like to write a whole lot... so I tend to just talk things out with myself too ;) hehe

Hi everybody!

I am planning on taking a gap year as of october... yes, I will be stopping university, it's driving me completly nuts! :faint:

I think I will be travelling, new zealand, australia, sth america... and working as well to have some money! i have such itchy feet, wanting to move and change!

I was wondering if many ADD take gap years...


have you taken one??? what did you choose to do during that year???

any experiences to share??

didine :)
Hi,

I took a year out 9 years ago! I was mainly in New Zealand. (I went back last year to vist old friends.) It was one of best experiences of my life. Saw amazing things and met amazing people. Feel free to pick my brains on NZ. :)

Legs.

Which place would be the best to start off in new zealand???? how is the job market over there, I mean is it easy to land a job...my dream is to land over there, see the country or have a cool job. A job where I could be outside, on a boat or a farm or in the forest... any tips Legs?

I wish I could take time off, but loans being the nature they are, I have to stay full time, also to stay covered under medical insuance. So until I finish school or turn 24 I'm stuck full time...

It's smart to take a year off especially if you don't know exactly what you want to do. Can't even begin to tell you how many majors I've had or how much money I've wasted.

If you are interested in adventurous jobs you might want to look at an international exchange program or get work on a cruise ship. Both would be amazing learning experiences and a lot of fun.

First, my apologies for the late response; I haven't gotten into the habit of keeping track of these boards quite yet.
How did you finally find out what you wanted to do Alex? I mean, what did you do in your break after failing your first year??? Did something just go "tilt" and you knew what you wanted to do from then on?
Not at all. My first year, I was in Engineering. And knew, three weeks in, that I hated it. I spent that year floundering, and the next (after begging my way back in from academic dismissal) in a basic Arts program, not knowing what I wanted but knowing it wasn't in the sciences.

Then I took a year off, traveled a bit (which I highly recommend), and then worked on and off while taking a few courses (this didn't work out too well either).

Finally, I got a relatively full-time job, and spent a couple years there. Somewhere in that period, I spent a lot of time thinking. I knew I couldn't go back to school unless I had a firm goal. And I knew I would squander away any goal I didn't really enjoy. I knew I liked history (I read it in my free time, out of school, that's what clued me in), and over the two years of working I also realized that my biggest strength, when it came to work, was in training new employees and managing. It was a call centre, though, and I didn't want to end up pushing paper for the rest of my life.

So, training. That's what clued me into teaching. It was not only that I enjoyed it, but that I was good at it.

So that's where my head went "tilt". About four years after I had failed out of my first year.
I'm dropping out of university, because I've been in a school environnement way too long (14 years - from 6 to 20) an I need a break plus I took a subject at random (but that still interested me), not really knowing what to do next...
I highly recommend it. Not dropping out mid-term; that's a waste of money and time. But after you finish a year, if you don't have a clue, take time off.

Because, even with non-ADD people, I think far too many people are doing what they think they should do, and ending up somewhere they'll be unhappy, rather than what they would enjoy doing. Taking the time to figure out what you do want means that you;
A> won't want to go back to school when you're done because you hate the job your degree got you
B> won't need to shell out extra money/go deeper into debt to do so
C> will get better grades and a much better chance of your profs noticing that you enjoy the work
and D> make a little money working while you wait, so you're hopefully not absolutely crippled by student debt when you get your degree.

I took a gap year, but not by choice I was supended from my last college. It wasen't quite a year more like 6 months or so. I did nothing, but I really neede to clear my head because I had no idea what I wanted to major in and I was just wasting money. I wish I would have done something more productive with my time, but I didn't want to use up any more of my grace period, because when I do graduate evenyually I'll have to start paying my loans off the week after.:)