10 Reasons Why You Should Take A Year Off

Taking a year off, whether it’s between high school and college, after college or a transition between careers, is nothing but a good idea. Yet, it’s an adventure most people hesitate on because it’s a lifestyle not necessarily idolized by our working class society. Sure, movies will tell us it’s easy – quit your job, round up your friends and head to Costa Rica. Or you’ll watch some other unrealistic drama about teens bypassing education and turning into overnight celebrities.

But let’s face reality for a moment: for the normal American teenager, we spend the first eight years of our lives in grade school, usually followed by four years of high school and then four years of college. Whether or not you go to college, you end up working at some sort of full-time job, with rent, loans and bills to pay for x amount of years. So, say you’re like me and you finished 16 years of schooling. That’s 16 years of homework; of waking up like clockwork early in the morning and cramming for tests until the late hours of the night. That’s 16 years of fluctuating with your weight, worrying about internships and working part-time jobs to save up money. It’s 16 years of trying to make new friends and yearning for a boyfriend or girlfriend. 16 years of running on an academic schedule and writing passive aggressive Facebook statues about how you’re “so done with school.” 16 years of stress, of anxiety and most of all, daydreaming about what you really want to be doing.

What exactly does it mean to “take a year off?”  The reality is, it’s letting that daydream come true.

But there are two thoughts that’ll keep you awake at night when making this decision:

1) What will my friends/family think of me?

Will they think I’m lazy? Selfish? Going nowhere in my life? 

2) Is it a waste of time to take a year off?

I should get a real job. I should be in a relationship. I need to focus on my career.

To answer the first one: taking a year off means taking the time to do something that you fully want to do. It’s a time where you make a solid decision about what’s best for yourself. That is not selfish because there’s nothing wrong with doing what you want to do. More importantly, stop asking yourself this question because it does not matter what anyone thinks. If you have your own money and a mind begging to take you on an adventure, go. Secondly, sure, you’ll hear about your friends and the new jobs they have. Though you’ll be happy for them, you’ll start wondering if you’re wasting your time. But you know what’s going to make you stand out in an interview – being cultural, having character, telling unique stories and proving that you can adapt to different environments and step out of your comfort zone. Travel helps you acquire all of those skills. And if you’re too afraid to admit it, I’ll say it for you: YOU DESERVE A BREAK.

So here are my 10 reasons for why you should take a year off:

1. You’ll learn more about yourself

It’s a big misconception that all people who take a year off are “finding themselves.” I spent the first half of my year off saving money and the second half backpacking through Europe. I’ve known for awhile who I am and what I want to be doing, so I wasn’t off on some great self-discovery trip. In fact, most people I met weren’t like that either. Travel can help you understand yourself better: how you interact with new people or adapt to changes. You’ll learn whether or not you get homesick and what your limit for staying in a hostel is. It’s not a matter of discovery, it’s an opportunity to understand.

2. You’ll meet like-minded people

You’ll meet people in the cities you visit, hostels/hotels you stay in or trains you travel on and you’ll quickly learn that you’re not the only one taking a year off. It’s refreshing when you meet people who share a similar perspective or opinion on travel and you’ll click with those people instantly. Some might even become life-long friends. Meeting people outside of your city/hometown/country will make you appreciate engaging with strangers – you’ll think about all those elevator rides, dining hall experiences or simple walks down the street where you were too busy to talk to anyone. But, when you travel, you’ll have this new personality trait where meeting new people comes naturally to you.

3. You’ll get a new perspective on life

It’s still not about “finding yourself” when you travel. This wraps all these points together because you’ll learn new ideas – about the world and yourself – that will help you evaluate what you deem important in life. Once you return, everything will seem weird, to put it simply. Whether you were backpacking Europe, in an AmeriCorps program or volunteering abroad, all those every day struggles you used to share on Facebook will seem so trivial. You’ll learn to see the good when everything feels like it’s falling apart. You’ll feel more confident in the directions you move in. Most importantly, people will start respecting you because your perspective will be more honest, clear and mature.

4. You’ll learn to budget

The first thing I told my father when I returned home from Europe was that is was the most expensive adventure ever. I told him I didn’t regret spending my money, but that I could not believe how expensive it was. The biggest thing I learned while traveling was how to budget my money. When you put yourself in a situation where you’re traveling and can only spend a certain amount each day, you learn to cut back on things like coffee and snacks. And you learn to live with less. You watch your bank account like a hawk, use cash as often as possible and actually take the time to think before purchasing anything.

5. You’ll have unique stories to tell

Don’t lie, this is a huge part of why you want to go on an adventure: because you want a story to tell. There’s nothing wrong with that because stories are a part of who we are. You never know who you might inspire with a brilliant story some day. Don’t you want to be that old grandma or grandpa whose always telling their grandchildren about the time they chased a heard of elk in a rainforest or got kicked out of the house they were staying at in Budapest and had to take a late-night train to Vienna!? Yep, both those things really happened.

6. You’ll go somewhere you never thought you’d go

Never in my life did I think I would be in Finland. I never thought I’d get to see Norway either – the fjords were mountains a friend had told me about and I never thought I’d actually see one. You have to go to that place you keep a calendar of in your room. You have to frolic through those lavender fields on the background of your computer. You have to just stick your finger on a map and go there because if you don’t, you’ll always be wondering what it’s like. Or someone else will go before you and you’ll have to dread looking through their Instagram feed.

7. You’ll become more cultural

By visiting new places, you will become more cultural. You’ll learn about the foods and traditions of another country. You’ll learn how different every country is – in its government, its behavior, its technology and religion. You can read about those ideas or you can live through them. And in being cultural, in being worldly, you learn to love how different people are. You’ll pick your favorite parts of each culture that will add to your new perspective and it will be so damn beautiful. You’ll be diverse and your life will feel  nourished.

8. You’ll become more aware of your health

You’ll be constantly aware of your body for two reasons: 1) you’ll be afraid of getting sick because the last thing you want to do is call your parents to say you’re in a hospital overseas and 2) you’ll be tempted to eat too much. When you’re traveling, it’s easy to just eat a bunch of bad stuff and “worry about it later.” You can’t do that when you’re on the road for a long period of time. Sure, there will be moments where you live off Nutella and bread to save money, but after a few days of doing so, you’ll realize the negative impacts and learn healthier habits.

9. You’ll learn to appreciate your family

When you leave, you’ll think you have so much freedom – that it’s so great to get away from home and you’ll never go back. But, the reality is, you will get homesick. You will miss your parents, your siblings and your pets. You will yearn for the comforts of home – the home cooked meals, your bed and the safety. But you’ll share photos with your family and find little gifts along the way that remind you of them. You’ll send e-mails to update them, they’ll send e-mails to check in on you. You’ll miss them and they’ll miss you – there’s something nice when you both recognize that.  You may not think so initially, but you’ll think about them constantly and wish they could see places with you. You’ll realize all that teen angst is gone, all that search for approval and outcast feelings will disappear because you’ll recognize how lucky you are to have a place to go home to. And on the inside, your family will love how wild you are because it inevitably will spark something in each of them.

10. You’ll go outside your comfort zone

The very fact that you decided to take a year off when everybody else is doing something normal makes you different. It puts you out of your comfort zone and you’ll be terrified, yet excited. You’ll be nervous, but anxious. You’ll go so far outside your comfort zone that you’ll have the ability to adapt to any situation. You’ll lose fear. You won’t be afraid to spend time alone. You’ll become independent. You’ll do things you never thought you’d do because you were comfortable in college. You were comfortable in high school and living at home. You were comfortable with the idea of following the norm and getting a job immediately after graduation. But when you take time off to travel, to be adventurous, you’re going to be so comfortably uncomfortable that you’ll forget you were ever even worried about it in the first place.

Before you know it, you’ll have a job, a house, a family of your own and you won’t be able to remember the last time you lived a great adventure. Don’t wait for that moment to catch up to you. Don’t believe other people when they tell you you’re going to fall behind if you take a year off. The best piece of advice about travel was given to me by an MTV Executive who told me: “Everyone is going to LA and competing against one another for a job, so if you have something different you want to do, do it. But come back and tell people about it – share photos, make a documentary or keep a blog. Having those stories will make you stand out. And that’s far more exciting than what everyone else is doing.”

Remarkable.

The was the word my friend used to describe my passion for others.

Whenever people give me letters or cards, I save them for a moment when I know I’ll be able to read them without any distractions.

And when I’m in a place where I can cry because I usually cry when I read or hear things people say about me.

I’m sensitive and I cry when something makes me feel good.

Or bad.

So what?

Anyway, she wrote some really nice words about me and I think I needed to hear those things from someone else.

I’m a pretty selfless person and I don’t say that to be modest because that’s just who I am. I love other people’s birthdays more than my own and I love buying small gifts for people when they remind me of them. 

I just think it’s great and important to remind people that you care about them.

I tend to put others first simply because that’s how I operate. I look at the world and find ways to help others because I’m lucky enough to have a family that cares about me and would never not support me.

Someone asked me once if I was born with a heart of gold.

Maybe I was. I don’t really know where this comes from. 

Maybe it happened when I saw that J-LO movie, “Glitter,” and though it was a silly movie, I remember a quote from it that said “Never take anyone for granted in life because you never know when you might lost them.”

When I was younger my siblings and I used to be bullied for being wealthy. We were pinned as “spoiled rich girls” and I just always found that silly because I’ve always worked in a restaurant and i’ve always been thankful that my parents worked as hard as they did so they could provide for their family. So I never really understood why people would judge me for having the last name of an India doctor. My dad makes alot of money, I would rely on cash tip outs to buy food at Sonic with my friends.

Things like that stick with me. Things people say stick with me. I keep a journal where I just write things people say – to me, about me, or things I overhear and just want to remember. 

But, anyway, it was nice to hear my friend say something so nice because when you’re selfless, you forget to pat yourself on the back. And when you’re sensitive and feel unappreciated, you feel lonely and like you don’t matter.

It’s a balancing act and I’m getting better at it.

Someday I hope to find someone who will help me balance that.

My friend is a really good friend and I am happy that we had a brilliant adventure together and that we both recognize each others remark ability.

I am going to write her something nice back now. Because that’s what you do when someone says something nice. Especially when you think the person deserves to know those nice things about themselves.

This is why I live writing letters.

And sending mail.

I like reminding people that someone thinks highly of them. 

That even if they don’t know it, someone is thinking of them or had a moment where they were inspired by them.

People should write more letters.

And be more honest with their words.

Life is too short not to tell someone something.

I’m realizing that now and I’m getting better at it.

INT. ALASKA AIRLINES FLIGHT 35 CABIN

Seat 15 A. It’s a window seat.

Snow covered fields lay peacefully below me.

My mind races as it usually does on airplanes.

Maybe this is my peace? Maybe covering this white sheet is my way of fighting off the loneliness.

The sickness.

The beating pain against my forehead.

The tingling feeling in my wrist that I always get.

This happens when I think too much or when I can’t think at all.

I think writing on paper and typing it up later does help more.

(Given my latest string art addiction, I’m assuming I have a need to cover up blank spaces.)

Maybe that’s why I feel so lonely?

And why I confuse relationships with God with relationships with people.

I wish I could sit peacefully on a plane like most of the people around me.

But I can’t.

And my ears are filled with a mix of sounds encouraging me to get it out.

And the thing is, I’m not entirely sure what that is right now.

I’m really happy.

Really, I am.

But that doesn’t mean depression is gone.

Or loneliness.

It comes and it goes. But I’m headed in a really good direction.

I am happy and I don’t know how many people can honestly say that.

I also know what I want to do with my life and I really don’t know how many people can say that.

But this past week was incredible.

Life changing.

Eye opening.

Inspiring.

Brilliant.

Portland is really cool. There are alot of friendly and creative people there. I think I’d rather line in Seattle (Something about the Olympic National Park won’t let me forget Washington. And Damien Jurado.)

But I could move to Portland if it felt right.

Anyway, I saw one of my dreams come to life at the Hold On Another Day + Project Believe In Me concert.

I stood on stage, told my story and felt inspired by all the artists – their stories and how they impacted people.

Alex and I went to a middle school and talked about bullying. The kids loved it. I loved those kids.

(Stubborn Love by The Lumineers just came on and my heart needs to melt a little bit.)

So, seeing your dream in reality is pretty cool. I’ll never give that up.

“Make the money don’t let the money make you,” is what Macklemore reminded me.

I come from a wealthy family. All my siblings are going to make alot of money and help alot of people.

And that’s great.

I am happy for them.

I am proud of them.

But my path is different.

And I can’t wait to keep going down it.

Because I am so in love with so many people.

And places.

And this job – Hold On Another Day – lets me have both.

I’d never trade that for anything.

You Just Have To Go.

Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.

– Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild

(Photo credit: @isosawey)

It was 9:00 when I woke up yesterday morning and texted my friend Chris “happy birthday.” He said thanks and asked if I had looked outside yet. I was confused, having laid in bed since 8:30 debating whether or not I wanted to get up early. The trash trucks come on Wednesday mornings, so I had heard them outside my window – was that what he wanted me to see? I sat up in my bed and peered through the blinds: there was snow EVERYWHERE.

I jumped from my bed, ran to my living room and looked out the windows. SNOW. Boston has snow! It’s felt like April since I returned back to the city, tricking my mind to believe we were closer to summer than we actually are. But this was real, tiny bunches of snow falling lightly from the sky, sticking – yes, sticking- to the ground and trees.

“AHH!” I txted him back, “what are we going to do!? Build a snowman!? A fort!? Go sledding! LET’S GO SLEDDING. Hot chocolate!?” There were so many ideas racing through my mind, I’ve just missed having snow. Even though I had so much when I was home in Ohio, it’s not the same when you’re in the city.

Quickly I started researching hills in the city that we could sled down. I had found one not to far from us in Brookline, MA but we needed to make or buy sleds somehow. Before I jumped into the shower, Chris had sent me a txt saying he would just be at his house shoveling the snow all day in the front yard. I thought to myself “that’s no way to spend a birthday, we need to do something crazy!” Then I realized: I don’t want to go sledding in the city. I don’t want to be in the city at all. I thought, If I were in Ohio I would probably go hiking in Cuyahoga Valley with my friends, where the waterfalls would be breaking through ice and the trees would plop piles of snow from above. But I had a few pieces of work to do today and Chris had his first day of class in the afternoon. I asked him if he was going to school and, when he told me he wasn’t, I quickly grabbed my computer and looked up the nearest ZipCar rental location.

I found one nearby and I could get it for half the day. I told him I wanted to go to the mountains and that I was renting a zipcar and would pick him up in twenty minutes. I told him to pack a bag.

So, that’s what we did. Between getting dressed, reserving a zipcar and throwing hiking clothes into a bag, I quickly ate a pop tart and ran out the door. I think I ran in and out of my apartment three times before I knew I actually had everything I needed: keys, wallet, backpack, zipcard. Chris ran to the store, bought some snacks for the road; I got the zip car, picked him up and we were off.

(photo credit: @isosawey)

I wanted to go to the white mountains in NH because I had just been skiing there and couldn’t get their image out of my mind. But, Chris reminded me you can only go so many miles in a zipcar so, we unfortunately couldn’t go that far. We decided to head to Wompatuck State Park and either mountain bike or hike through an area of the park we’d never been. We decided to pull go somewhere new and just hike in and around the park. We didn’t really care where we were going, just that it was somewhere that wasn’t Boston.

(photo credit: @ikthottam)

While driving, we pulled off the road to see a cool frozen lake. That’s when Chris climbed ontop the car to get a good Instagram shot. So I instagramed him instagraming.

Anyway, what I learned today was that it’s so easy to fall back into a routine and hurt your brain thinking too much about the things you really want to do and see in life. My transition into “reality” has been slow and has had its ups and downs. I work a few jobs and I’m trying to make a living, but I know I am only really living when I’m out there, driving to somewhere I’ve never been with the city behind me. And nothing beats fulfilling a spontaneous adventure with a good friend. It’s nice to have those people in your life because it reminds you that there are people out there who don’t think you’re crazy when you just want to get out and explore. I think that’s why I like having this blog, too, because the fact that people are reading and liking my posts shows me that other people think this way, so we’re not crazy for being too creative or adventurous to have a regular, boring old job.

So, whatever it is you’ve been wanting to do lately: just go. I promise you, you’ll feel so much better when you return.

I am currently fulfilling the unemployed writer stereotype by sitting in a cafe, writing.

I’m working on a book, well, I guess I can’t really call it a book until it’s published and people actually read it. I hope people would actually read it. I want to use my writing to inspire people to tell their own stories and live their own adventures. So, I figure, if what I love doing is traveling and writing, that’s just what I should do. And if I travel and write enough, I’ll have enough stories to tell, this creating a book I can sell. That makes sense, right?

My brain works in very odd ways, I think that’s the problem with other people trying to understand me. Every time I talk to someone about where my life is right now, I get puzzled look after puzzled look question my “intentions with my life.” I’m really getting sick of that.

“But like, what are you going to be doing?”

“Writing.”

“But like, how are you going to make money?”

Last night, I created a string art design on a blank wall in my apartment. I’ll post photos of it later, but I think that’s a good illustration of how my brain works. It’s very different from the line of doctors I come from.

Meh, I wish people would just worry about themselves. I’m not worried about it, so why should they?

I’m just going to continue working on my book and a screenplay. Then, one day, people will realize I knew what I was doing all along.

Until then, here’s my friend Heather and I in Times Square for New Years. That’s a fun story, I’ll write about that crazy adventure soon.