Alleviating Youth Uncertainty with a “Year of Wandering”: How Do We Implement the Gap Year in the United States?

Many countries promote some version of a gap year, encouraging youth to spend a year abroad before making major life decisions. Why hasn’t this caught on as much in the United States?

Photo by Justin Luebke on Unsplash

There is a familiar story of hesitancy I’ve heard many retell about their days directly after high school. “What now?” becomes a fundamental question at some point in our adolescence and usually it comes around the time we are exiting high school. Many are wracked by indecision and anxiety. All too often many of the youth in the United States typically make a hasty roll-of-the-die choice between one of three doors: join the military, enter the workforce, or attend college. And hurry up or you’ll be left behind!

As adolescents, we tend to absorb a lot of the apprehensions and pressures of our parents and communities and we often feel obligated to feign confidence like we know what we’re doing. We soon become incessantly hammered by the question “What are you planning to do after high school?” almost the minute our self-conscious, hormone-addled selves enter the 9th grade.

While I think growing up in any generation is riddled with anxiety, the famed social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has labeled our current youth the “Anxious Generation” in his recent book and makes a compelling case for their unique historical situation with the onset of social media disrupting a lot of their lives. But reducing kids’ online addiction is only part of the equation. Getting them enthused about venturing into the real world is another task entirely–I suspect a year of wandering might be the antidote to alleviate some of their anxiety.

Other countries and cultures have a more relaxed attitude and approach to adolescent development at this juncture in their lives. Australians and New Zealanders boast their one-year “overseas experience.” Ireland encourages a “transition year.” Teenagers in other cultures and societies are often encouraged not to jump into a major decision that will ultimately influence the rest of their lives. That seems wise.

Although there are signs of change it is still questionable why we do not have much cultural motivation for the gap year in the United States. According to the Gap Year Association, less than 5% of the student population in the US embraces the idea of a gap year.

A gap year–or what I’d prefer to rebrand as “a year of wandering”–is a transitional period or general time off from our institutions of work, military, or schooling to travel, explore one’s creative outlets, cultivate relationships, or simply meditate awhile on the future one wishes to create for themselves. How might implementing a gap year positively affect our youth and how do we shift culture and society to embrace the idea of letting their children experience this year of wandering?

It’s great if you know exactly what you were born to do and want to get a head start on your career directly out of high school. However, I suspect most of us are less clear-eyed about our future and more often filled with a lot of uncertainty at this stage of our lives, and with good reason. The stakes are high in finding a path worthwhile as well as a life trajectory that is going to support us and our families should we decide to go that route of having children.

Also, it is worth mentioning that I do not think all of us are always in the appropriate headspace to venture off on our own at a young age. Consideration of one’s mental and emotional health or overall maturity is in order before strapping a bag on your child’s back with a roll of hundreds and wishing them the best of luck. Nonetheless, I believe many of our youths could surely benefit from a year of wandering, and it’s something that parents might have a mutual interest in.

I recall an all-too-common phenomenon as an undergraduate while at Indiana University. The “major-switcher” was someone who, after finding out in their first year of college they were not particularly well-suited to becoming an animal behaviorist or geneticist after they had to slowly torture a few rats in the lab, switched to some other venture. Some quickly found out business bores the living hell out of them or memorizing the lineage of the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses in mythology class made them beg they would be smitten by Zeus before the next test came around.

Many students switch majors at least once and it isn’t too uncommon for people to switch their majors multiple times, much to the consternation of their parents who typically foot the bill. Statistics vary across higher education institutions but on average about 30% of students switch majors at least once, and 1 in 10 change majors more than once. The highest major switchers are aspiring mathematicians with 52% changing majors within their first three years. Occasionally, I heard of a student who was in their fifth or sixth year as an undergrad. I can’t imagine this dithering behavior pleases too many parents and their pocketbooks.

I don’t blame students for their indecision. I just think we can find a far cheaper and far more eye-opening set of experiences for this large cohort of indecisive youths to do before they bankrupt their parents. The question is: If no one wins in these scenarios of indecision, why does it persist in our culture and appear so common? Why haven’t we gotten a better grip on the problem of youth uncertainty in our society?

And with the immense leap in the cost of education in the last few decades, I’ve often wondered, if someone was going to nonchalantly fork over 20k a year or more to say, learn French or anthropology or Greek tragedy, why didn’t they save all that money and use it to travel to France, Greece, or wherever their interests carried them? Why not initially figure out if they were compatible with such a career choice and if it made sense to invest heavily in an entire program in that subject? Some subjects might not require a degree and one can simply learn experientially while immersed in another culture. Maybe a few out there do embark on such reconnaissance missions, but that is quite rare as the statistics bear out.

Now, I don’t pretend to know much about how to start a cultural revolution or shift our consciousness en masse in favor of the gap year overnight. Plus, there are much deeper cultural, social, economic, political, and geographical factors to unpack that would help explain why the U.S. doesn’t have a substantial culture around the gap year or traveling abroad for that matter. For example, Europeans are geographically well-positioned to take advantage of the proximity of many other countries and cultures. If you live in France or Germany, one’s ability to travel to adjacent countries with minimal investment in time and money is a luxury citizens of the U.S. do not have.

Perhaps I will dive deeper into unpacking more of these factors in a future post. For today, I just want to focus more on what we can do personally to boost the idea of a gap year in the U.S. because I suspect it would alleviate some major problems in uncertainty and may save parents a lot of grief and money.

We can all play some role in encouraging others to take a break from our institutions and have an adventure for a while. The earlier in life, the better. Our children, families, and friends are our first point of contact and may be the best candidates for gradually shifting our culture to be more accepting and encouraging of a gap year. If we have children, we can urge them to take a gap year by saving up extra money for them in the way we do for their college funds.

One thing my wife and I have committed to is not only saving up extra travel money for our son but also getting him used to travel while he is young. After all, learning how to travel isn’t easy and I suspect priming children and adolescents to learn how to navigate adventures is foundational knowledge to becoming a future adult who loves to travel.

Then there are simply exchanges of gifts and clever mementos that can amount to big changes in opening a child’s eyes to the larger world. Something I don’t think was a small act on the part of my grandparents was all the postcards they sent me growing up from their travels to the western United States and its many National Parks. Little did they know that receiving those postcards was incredibly formative and inspired me to want to travel. Because of them I’ve so far managed to visit almost half our National Parks and made it a goal to visit all of them at least once before I die. My wife’s parents have already begun this tradition with our son as well. Little gestures like this can evoke and sustain a child’s wanderlust and they shouldn’t be underestimated.

My wife Hilary had a well-traveled aunt who recently passed away. She was a flight attendant for more than half a century working for Pan American and later for United for 54 years, which enabled her to see the world in ways that few of us have. Her time traveling had a tremendous impact on the wanderlust of her nieces and nephews whom she prioritized and visited frequently, often with many trinkets and tales to share. On closer inspection, even her wanderlust had been previously inspired by her father who was a pilot. He too had dramatically influenced all his children, who went on to become well-traveled in their own right.

Thus, we should not underestimate the power of our friends and family members to be the ones who influence us most to see the world. Across the generations, a simple love of travel in one person can gradually have a snowballing effect on an entire culture. Each of us can play a significant role in nudging our friends and family in the direction of travel and adventure.

If we can eventually discover ways to scale things up and inspire more people in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and among our millions of online followers, or perhaps build better institutions that incentivize youth programs for travel, that’s great! However, most of us are only going to be able to have a smaller, albeit nontrivial, role to play in our immediate families and that’s probably where we’ll likely have the most lasting impact anyway. Who knows, this grassroots approach may have a far greater rippling effect on the culture over time than any state-sponsored travel exchange program, scholarship, or grant, or any of the many gap year industry organizations that have come and gone over the years.

That said, it’s not a competition and I much rather favor a holistic approach or one that is multifaceted that enables and incentivizes more people to see the world, regardless of any financial or sociocultural barriers. Not everyone wants or needs to attend college either and there should be programs to assist any young person not fully sure of their future to take the time to mull it over.

We have one life to live. Do we not all deserve some time off to make sure we can think about the life we want to commit ourselves to? Can the “anxious generation” eventually evolve into the “adventurous generation”? A gap year or “year of wandering” may just be the key to alleviating (some) youth uncertainty.

So, if you have some influence over a young person in our family or friend groups today, consider urging them to hit the open road. Let them at least be aware that they are free to have an adventure and choose one accordingly. Telling them to “take a hike” might turn out to be the best thing they need to clear their head and figure out the path they want to journey down the rest of their lives. Backpack a long-distance trail. Bike across the country. Climb a mountain or two. Dive somewhere deep in the ocean. Go skydiving. Float down a river. Book a one-way ticket to wherever the dart lands on the world map. Get lost in a foreign land.

Chances are, they will likely come back from their travels with a mind brimming with ideas about the meaningful life they now wish to pursue–and they will be forever grateful for your encouragement, even if it is the simple act of sending them a postcard while you were on your own travels.

For consideration:

●      Are you in favor of a gap year? Why or why not?

●      What advice do you have to aid the cultural shift toward a year of wandering?

●      In what way did you benefit from wandering before starting a career as a young person?

●      If you have children, have you encouraged them to take time off to travel? Why or why not?

Thanks for being a fellow traveler with me through this read. Please consider subscribing, sharing, and supporting this project—much more to follow.

Cheers!

-JSB