Spaces and Exchanges / Espaces et échanges Bac Anglais LV1

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Many people realize where their limits are and become more open-minded. Indeed, real life experiences will teach them how to handle situations with more humility. They will also gain maturity and will take more time before making their decision. On top of that they will learn how to be independent because, being far away from home they can only count on themselves and on people they hardly know.

This experience can make students realize that not everybody has the same access to education (equal opportunities), that they don't pay attention to the same things and that maybe they, as Westerners, pay too much attention to material things. It can also make gappers realize that maybe they were too self-centered and too judgmental before. Thanks to this year off they can become more tolerant, and will no longer reject people who are culturally very different from them.

They learned to put thing into perspective becoming aware that they are privileged, that small problems shouldn't bother them because there are bigger ones elsewhere.

III. The limits

Even if the gap-year can be, in many cases, a life changing-experience it can also be a total waste of time and so of money as we saw with Kim Bielenberg's article entitled "The big issue: mind the gap year". This document focuses on the possible limits or dangers of taking a gap year. A gap-year has to be spent productively. I mean a gap year does not offer you the answer about your future if you are not really looking for it. At the end of the year you won't have an idea about what your future will be made of if you have spent the year as if you were on holiday. Sometimes, however you may come back home still indecisive about your future and maybe you didn't get the experience you were hoping for. What's more the student may find it hard to settle back to his past life, continue his studies. We can also ask ourselves if the gap year has become a market in which spurious organizations make money on students' backs. Gap year means adaptation but not everybody can adapt easily to a new environment. Show evidence that it was an enriching experience and that it was worthwhile.

Conclusion:

To conclude you must carefully balance the pros and cons before you leave but if you do it for good reasons it can really become a life-changing experience but as our last document said mind the gap year!