"Gap" - not in your Teeth, but your Education!

But my "Gap" today is something else. It is becoming quite a fashionable for students in the West to take a year off between high school and university (before doing a bachelor's degree). It is a kind of "see what life is all about" type thing. These students do not spend the whole year just playing computer games or shopping - their "gap year" is all about doing something different and constructive to broaden their experience.

Example 1 - Working for a charity organisation to better understand the needs of those who are less fortunate. This can be very demanding psychologically as well as physically.

Example 2 - Working as a teacher in a less developed country. Great if you like children.

Example 3 - Travelling the world on the cheap. (So now you know what some of those backpacker types are doing on Kao San Road or Koh Phangan.)

Example 4 - Working in a company as an intern.

The point of all this is to test yourself outside your normal environment, to challenge yourself beyond your normal experience. Twelve months of this and there is no question that you become more mature and better able to handle the adult world. University teachers tell me that students who have had a gap year are far more adaptable and take a broader view of life. They also work better with other students, having been challenged in other social environments.

Ideally your "gap" should be spent abroad. Anywhere is fine, so long as you have to deal with it alone. Now that is tough for Ms or Mr Average Thai who, as we all know, would prefer to be surrounded by family and friends. But that is what the challenge is all about: forcing yourself to adapt to an unfamiliar lifestyle. Of course, your parents are not necessarily going to be too happy about this, so you might have to do the hard sell, but this will really help you become more successful in the future.

Go for it. And if you need help, come and talk to me. And so, not like the Tube - Do NOT "Mind the Gap". Look forward to it.

BY John Kelly

Director

Mentor International

www.mentor.ac